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THE  UNIVERSITY 

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SOCIOLOGY 


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THE  AMERICAN  SPIRIT  IN  THE  WRITINGS 
OF  AMERICANS  OF  FOREIGN  BIRTH 


n"rte  American  Spirit  in  4ie 

Writings  of  Americans 

of  Foreign  Birth 

SELECTIONS  CHOSEN  AND  EDITED 
BY 

ROBERT  E.  STAUFFER,  A.  kt,  B.  L.  S. 


The  Christopher  Publishing  House 
Boston,  U.  S.  A. 


Copyright  1922 
By  The  Christopher  Publishing  House 


PRINTED  IN  U.  S.  A. 


5UV 


To  my  revered  friend  and  teacher 

Joseph  Lorain  Shunk 

And  to  my  younger  friend 

Henry  Praua 

The  one  born  in  the  United  States 

The  other  in  far-away  Czecho-Slovakia 

But  in  both  of  whom  I  have  found 

True  and  noble  manifestation* 

Of  the  American  spirit 


P 

1 


562819 


Let  us  judge  our  immigrants  also  out  of  their  own  mouths,  as  future 
generations  will  be  sure  to  judge  them.  Mary  Antin. 

He  is  an  American,  who,  leaving  behind  him  all  his  ancient  preju- 
dices and  manners,  receives  new  ones  from  the  new  mode  of  life  he 
has  embraced,  the  new  government  he  obeys,  and  the  new  rank  he 
holds.  .  .  .  The  American  is  a  new  man,  who  acts  upon  new  prin- 
ciples; he  must  therefore  entertain  new  ideas,  and  form  new  opinions* 

Crivecoeur. 

Where  the  schoolhouse  banner  flaunts  the  morning  breeze, 
Where  the  rough  farm  student  strides  amid  the  wheat, 
Where  the  voice  of  knowledge  fills  a  thousand  halls, 
Where  the  athletes  in  their  mimic  warfare  meet; 

Where  the  master  grasps  the  brand 

Of  lightning  in  his  hand, 
And  the  hidden  Powers  of  Air  to  service  bent 
Proclaim  the  issue  of  the  long  experiment, 

I  behold  the  future  race 

Arise  in  strength  and  grace; 
Shall  they  falter?     Shall  they  fail?     Shall  they  endure? 

Lo,  the  onward  march  is  sure. 

William  James  Dawson. 


INTRODUCTION 

A  visit  to  the  public  library  of  many  towns  and  cities  of 
five  to  twenty  thousand  inhabitants,  and  inquiry  among  per-, 
aons  of  considerable  and  even  college  education,  reveals  a 
widespread  unacquaintance  with  the  writings  of  our  foreign- 
born  citizens.  Seldom  does  one  find  the  books  of  more  than 
four  or  five  of  these  authors  upon  the  shelves  of  the  smaller 
public  and  college  libraries;  yet  these  institutions  are  doing 
much  to  develop  public  opinion  in  countless  communities  made 
up  for  the  most  part  of  native  Americans  who  have  hitherto 
been  largely  ignorant  of  and  indifferent  to  the  condition  and 
aims  of  the  foreign  population,  but  whose  intelligent  and 
sympathetic  interest  in  the  foreign-born  must  be  aroused  if 
the  great  gulf  between  the  two  is  to  be  bridged. 

The  funds  of  many  libraries,  it  is  true,  are  so  limited  as  to 
preclude  the  purchase  of  a  majority  of  these  books,  worth 
while  as  they  are;  yet  the  splendid  American  spirit  to  be 
found  in  many  of  them  ought  to  be  more  familiar  to  Ameri- 
cans, whether  native  or  foreign-born.  This  volume  of  selec- 
tions is  offered,  therefore,  not  as  an  equivalent  for  the  read- 
ing of  the  complete  works  here  represented,  but  to  help  stim- 
ulate a  more  general  interest  in  their  authors  and  in  books 
of  this  type,  and  to  show  with  a  cumulative  emphasis  the 
essence  of  the  genuine  Americanism  with  which  these  writ- 
ings are  imbued. 

As  one  reads  these  and  other  works  of  the  foreign-born  in 
historical  sequence,  he  will  notice  that  their  manner  of  writ- 
ing has  become  less  reflective  and  philosophical  and  more 
critical  and  impassioned,  but  that  keeping  pace  there  has 
been  an  intense  and  burning  patriotism.  The  early  colon- 
ists and  immigrants  were  seldom  touched  except  in  their 
political  liberties;  recent  immigrants  have  been  growing  in- 
creasingly sensitive  to  the  infringement  of  their  social  and 
economic  rights.  This,  of  course,  is  a  quality  not  peculiar 
to  the  writings  of  the  foreign-born,  but  is  incident  to  the 
modern  industrial  and  social  situation  with  conditions  very 


u- 


10  INTRODUCTION 

different  from  those  obtaining  in  the  seventeenth  and  eigh- 
teenth centuries.  The  struggle  against  social  forces  with 
their  great  complexity  and  ever  renewed  and  boundless  en- 
ergy has  demanded  of  the  recent  immigrants  the  highest 
qualities  for  success. 

Nearly  all  the  selections  included  in  this  volume  will  be 
found  charged  with  a  strong  human  quality,  revealing  the 
poignant  Homesickness  of  the  stranger  in  a  new  world,  his 
sensitiveness,  his  forward-looking  hope,  his  realization  of 
both  the  humorous  and  the  tragic  side  of  his  case,  his  fine 
hero-worship,  his  firm  belief  in  the  unique  mission  and  high 
destiny  of  his  adopted  country,  and  his  faith  in  the  brother- 
hood of  man  and  the  dawning  of  a  new  day  upon  the  earth. 

It  is  not  within  the  scope  of  this  introduction  to  plead  for 
any  particular  immigration  policy.  Whether  we  shall  adopt 
one  of  rigid  restriction  or  assume  a  liberal  attitude,  and  what 
shall  be  the  bases  of  the  selection  of  the  immigrant  in  the 
future,  are  questions  to  be  answered  not  by  the  petty  poli- 
tician, the  unscrupulous  demagogue,  the  uninformed  pro- 
vincial, or  the  alarmists  of  little  faith  who,  in  their  hysteria, 
would  completely  reverse  the  traditions  of  the  nation  by 
closing  the  gates  entirely,  but  are  matters  to  be  determined 
by  fair-minded  and  representative  leaders  after  a  careful  and 
unbiased  study  of  the  problem  in  its  various  economic,  social 
and  national  aspects.  The  chief  concern  here  is  with  our 
attitude  toward  the  millions  of  unassimilated  immigrants 
already  among  us.  To  them  it  would  be  well  for  most  of 
us  to  give  our  attention  before  attempting  to  solve  the  in- 
tricate and  perplexing  question  of  an  immigration  policy. 
Perhaps  if  we  did,  we  might  get  more  light  and  arrive  at  a 
more  unanimous  and  consistent  conclusion  regarding  the  ad- 
mission of  those  who  are  now  said  to  be  ready  in  such  great 
numbers  to  knock  at  our  gates. 

In  these  selections,  it  is  believed,  will  be  found  convincing 
proof  that  to  try  to  educate  and  Americanize  the  foreign-  in- 
born by  force  is  not  only  unwise  and  will  prove  futile,  be- 
cause it  flies  in  the  face  of  the  principles  of  human  nature, 
but  is  also  unnecessary.     Still,  the  dejection  on  the  part  of 


INTRODUCTION  1 1 

many  persons  over  our  apparent  failure  to  assimilate  the  im- 
migrant is  truly  pathetic.  But  why  so  much  despair  about 
this,  when  countless  thousands  of  native  Americans  have 
little  or  no  realizing  sense  of  the  duties  of  citizenship  ?  Who 
is  the  more  culpable,  the  man  who,  being  in  a  new  land 
and  often  lonely  and  neglected,  finds  it  difficult  to  overleap 
the  barriers  of  timidity  and  suspicion  and  a  foreign  lan- 
guage and  strange  customs,  in  order  to  seize  the  larger  oppor- 
tunities; or  the  man  who,  though  born  and  reared  in  the 
midst  of  all  the  advantages  of  American  life,  fails  to  appre- 
ciate his  precious  heritage  and  treats  with  indifference  or 
abuses  the  sacred  right  of  franchise?  Certainly  hostility  and 
neglect  will  accomplish  nothing,  where  hospitality  and  help- 
fulness may  go  far  to  induce  the  newcomers  to  avail  them- 
selves of  the  opportunities  and  responsibilities  open  to  them 
in  America. 

An  illustration  of  how  readily  the  foreigner  may  respond 
to  the  least  show  of  kindness  and  fellowship  is  afforded  by 
the  following  incident.  A  traveller  on  a  west-bound  train 
out  of  New  York  was  accosted  by  a  young  Italian  immigrant, 
who  handed  him  a  card  of  the  Italian  Immigration  Society 
on  the  reverse  of  which  was  written,  "Please  direct  this  man 
to  Santa  Cruz  train."  Now  it  happened  that  the  American 
had  once  visited  Italy  and  had  picked  up  a  smattering  of  the 
language,  and  partly  by  this  and  partly  by  the  use  of  signs 
he  did  his  best  to  convey  the  desired  information.  He  then 
asked  the  young  man  into  his  own  seat;  and,  as  they  talked 
together  of  Italy  and  the  places  the  American  had  visited, 
the  youth's  face  glowed  with  the  joy  of  remembrance.  And 
then  it  was  revealed  that  this  sturdy  and  warm-hearted  Ital- 
ian, from  whom  the  American  might  have  turned  as  from  a 
"dago"  and  "scum  of  the  earth,"  was  one  of  the  heroes  of 
the  Great  War;  that  he  had  been  wounded  in  the  terrible 
disaster  of  Caporetto,  and  had  received  from  the  Italian 
minister  of  war  testimonials  and  medals  for  gallant  conduct 
in  battle. 

It  is  at  least  a  question  whether  a  vast  amount  of  time, 
energy,  and  money  has  not  been  misspent  in  a  hysterical  en- 


12  INTRODUCTION 

deavor  to  get  the  adult  immigrant  to  change  his  vernacular 
and  foreign  ways.  Realizing  from  my  own  experience,  both 
as  a  student  and  as  a  teacher  of  English  to  foreigners,  the 
immense  effort  necessary  to  acquire  even  a  rudimentary 
knowledge  of  a  strange  language  after  the  plastic  period  of 
youth  has  passed,  I  am  convinced  that  too  much  stress  may 
be  laid  upon  the  importance  of  the  mere  acquisition  of  the 
English  language  by  the  adult  immigrant. 

A  change  in  the  manners  and  customs  of  the  immigrant 
has  undoubtedly  a  useful  and  necessary  part  in  his  Ameri- 
canization; but  undue  emphasis  upon  mere  externals  may, 
with  its  false  implications,  easily  create  erroneous  impres- 
sions. Just  now  there  comes  to  mind  in  this  connection  an 
illustration  prominently  displayed  upon  the  front  page  of  one 
of  our  most  respected  periodicals, — a  photograph  of  an  immi- 
grant mother  standing  between  her  two  sons,  one  of  whom 
is  garbed  in  American  hat  and  overcoat,  the  other  in  uncouth 
workaday  attire.  Beneath  the  picture  appears  this  ques- 
tion, "Which  is  Americanized?"  One  feels  he  must  protest 
against  the  shallow  and  all  too  prevalent  thinking  which 
finds  in  the  mere  alteration  of  language  and  dress  the  essen- 
tials of  Americanism,  and  which  consequently  has  so  little 
constructive  and  farsighted  assistance  to  give  to  the  momen- 
tous work  of  Americanization.  It  has  been  far  too  fre- 
quently demonstrated  that  a  person  may  not  only  wear 
American  clothes  and  speak  English  fluently,  but  may  have 
been  educated  from  his  youth  up  in  American  institutions 
without  being  really  Americanized. 

The  elder  generation  should,  of  course,  be  aided  in  every 
reasonable  and  practicable  way;  but  it  should  soberly  be 
borne  in  mind  that  it  is  going  to  take  decades,  if  not  cen- 
turies, to  Americanize  America,  and  that  the  hope  of  the  na- 
tion is  in  the  children,  both  native  and  foreign-born.  It  is  a 
splendid  demonstration  of  the  truth  of  this  that  the  most 
fervid  tributes  to  America  come  from  the  lips  of  those  who 
have  arrived  in  the  United  States  in  the  impressionable  years 
of  youth.  If,  then,  the  rate  of  progress  toward  perfection 
is  to  be  appreciably  accelerated,  there  must  be  much  more 


INTRODUCTION  13 

liberality  in  the  support  of  the  public  schools  and  other  edu- 
cational and  humanizing  institutions. 

What  is  an  American,  or  what  is  Americanism?  Many 
persons  to-day  are  asking  this  question,  to  which  perhaps 
only  the  future  can  give  a  complete  answer.  I  venture  to 
say,  however,  that  an  American  is  not  one  who  expects  to 
find  in  the  United  States  Utopian  conditions,  but  one  who 
realizes  the  imperfections  of  American  society  and  yet  has 
faith  in  the  ultimate  goal  toward  which  the  diverse  human 
elements  here  are  struggling;  that  he  is  one  who  does  not 
seek  or  propose  any  single  panacea  for  the  ills  of  the  nation, 
but  who,  above  all  else,  is  conscious  of  his  spiritual  unity  with 
those  American  minds  that  are  striving  in  the  sanest  and  best, 
though  various,  ways  for  the  attainment  of  the  high  ends  for 
which  the  republic  was  founded,  and  that  desire  to  see  the 
golden  rule  and  "reason  and  the  will  of  God"  prevail  in 
American  life. 

And  it  is  just  this  consciousness  of  spiritual  unity  that  is 
perhaps  the  most  intense  and  valuable  element  in  the  writings 
of  those  who  have  paid  the  highest  price  for  their  citizenship, 
and  that  is  so  well  worth  bringing  to  the  attention  of  those 
who,  whether  native  or  foreign-born,  have  never  passed  from 
the  "centre  of  indifference"  into  the  "everlasting  yea"  of 
patriotism  and  national  feeling. 

Much  available  and  appropriate  material  has  of  necessity 
been  omitted  from  this  compilation,  periodical  articles  in 
particular,  with  two  exceptions,  being  excluded.  But 
although  the  selections  chosen  constitute  the  utterances  of 
only  a  small  minority  of  the  foreign-born,  it  is  felt  that  their 
validity  and  representative  character  are  not  impaired.  It 
must  be  remembered  that  there  are  thousands  of  American 
citizens  of  foreign  birth  leading  contented  and  useful  lives, — 
lawyers,  physicians,  clergymen,  artists,  teachers,  and  crafts- 
men, whose  ideals  and  life-work  have  either  not  found  ex- 
pression in  books,  or  whose  writings  have  been  impersonal  in 
character,  but  who,  if  they  were  to  write  down  their  feel- 
ings, would  express  themselves  in  sentiments  similar  to 
those  of  their  gifted  compatriots  of  literary  tendencies;  and 


14  INTRODUCTION 

even  among  the  inarticulate  mass  there  is  a  potential  devo- 
tion, which,  under  the  proper  conditions,  can  be  kindled  into 
an  ardent  loyalty  and  patriotism. 

Theodore  Roosevelt  once  said,  in  writing  the  foreword  to 
one  of  the  works  here  quoted :  "When  we  tend  to  grow  dis- 
heartened over  some  of  the  developments  of  our  American 
civilization,  it  is  well  worth  while  seeing  what  this  same 
civilization  holds  for  starved  and  eager  souls  who  have  else- 
where been  denied  what  here  we  hold  to  be  as  a  matter  of 
course,  rights  free  to  all — although  we  do  not,  as  we  should 
do,  make  these  rights  accessible  to  all  who  are  willing  with 
resolute  earnestness  to  strive  for  them."  That  in  part  has 
been  the  aim  in  bringing  these  selections  together.  It  is 
hoped  that  they  may  contribute  not  a  little  to  a  better  under- 
standing between  America,  new  and  old,  and  that  they  may 
help  to  allay  the  fears  of  those  who  have  been  inclined  to 
ascribe  most  of  our  national  ills  to  the  presence  among  us  of 
the  foreign-born,  and  who  have  had  their  share  in  the  "wave 
of  blind  distrust  of  the  foreigner"  which  has  recently  swept 
over  the  land.  Surely,  no  one  is  justified  in  judging  the 
foreign-born,  or  is  worthy  or  fitted  to  aid  in  educating  them 
in  regard  to  the  duties  of  citizenship,  unless  he  has  first  ac- 
quainted himself  with  their  hopes,  their  disappointments, 
their  aspirations,  the  travail  and  pathos  of  their  new  birth, 
and  their  deep-rooted  love  for  America,  as  set  forth  in  their 
own  writings ;  for  these  are  probably  the  strongest  Americani- 
zation documents  we  possess  and  one  of  the  surest  proofs  of 
the  soundness  of  our  institutions. 


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 

For  generous  permission  to  use  copyrighted  selections 
grateful  acknowledgment  is  given  to  the  following  publish- 
ers and  individuals:  To  Messrs.  Harper  &  Brothers  for  the 
selections  by  M.  E.  Ravage;  to  The  Pilgrim  Press  for  the 
selection  by  George  A.  Gordon;  to  Messrs.  Charles  Scrib- 
ner's  Sons  for  the  selection  by  Edwin  L.  Godkin;  to  The 
Four  Seas  Company  for  the  selections  by  Robert  M.  Wer- 
naer;  to  Fleming  H.  Revell  Company  for  the  selections  by 
Edward  A.  Steiner;  to  J.  B.  Lippincott  Company  for  the 
use  of  part  of  the  address,  "True  Americanism,"  by  Carl 
Schurz ;  to  The  Christopher  Publishing  House  for  the  selec- 
tions by  Enrico  C.  Sartorio;  to  Messrs.  D.  Appleton  &  Co. 
for  the  selection  by  Felix  Adler;  to  Messrs.  P.  J.  Kenedy  & 
Sons,  to  the  trustees  of  the  estate  of  Mary  J.  A.  O'Reilly, 
and  to  the  daughters  of  the  poet,  Mrs.  William  E.  Hocking, 
Miss  Mary  Boyle  O'Reilly  and  Miss  Elizabeth  Boyle 
O'Reilly  for  the  use  of  poems  or  parts  of  poems  from  the 
work  of  John  Boyle  O'Reilly;  to  The  Century  Company 
and  to  Miss  Anzia  Yezierska  for  the  selection,  "How  I 
Found  America,"  from  the  Century  Magazine;  to  The  Cen- 
tury Company  also  for  the  selection  by  Oscar  Straus ;  to  Mr. 
Seraphim  G.  Canoutas  for  the  selection  from  his  "Hellenism 
in  America" ;  to  The  State  Historical  Society  of  Iowa  and  to 
Mr.  Jacob  Van  der  Zee  for  the  selection  from  "The  Hol- 
landers of  Iowa";  to  Messrs.  Doubleday,  Page  &  Co.  and 
to  Mr.  Stefano  Miele  for  the  selection  from  an  article  by 
Mr.  Miele  in  the  World's  Work;  to  The  Macmillan  Com- 
pany for  the  selections  by  Angelo  Patri  and  E.  G.  Stern ;  to 
The  Macmillan  Company  and  The  Outlook  Company  for 
the  selections  by  Jacob  Riis;  and  to  Mr.  Otto  H.  Kahn  and 
to  Mr.  John  Kulamer  for  the  selections  appearing  under  their 
names. 

The  selections  by  Mary  Antin  and  Abraham  M.  Rihbany, 
and  the  one  from  Carl  Schurz's  "Abraham  Lincoln"  are  used 
by  permission  of,  and  by  special  arrangement  with,  Hough- 


l6  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 

ton    Mifflin   Company,   the   authorized   publishers   of   their 
works. 

Thanks  are  here  also  cordially  given  to  those  persons,  in- 
cluding several  authors  not  mentioned  above,  who,  by  their 
courtesies  and  encouragement,  and  in  a  number  of  instances 
by  specific  suggestions,  have  assisted  in  the  work  of  compila- 
tion and  editing. 


CONTENTS 


PAGX 

INTRODUCTION     9 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS     15 

PHILIP   SCHAFF    20 

Cosmopolitan  Character  of  "American  Nationality" 21 

FRANCES  D'ARUSMONT  29 

The  Constitution  and  Establishment  of  the  Federal   Gov- 
ernment       30 

FRANCIS  LIEBER    33 

A  German  Immigrant  Points  Out  the  Dangers  of  Segre- 
gation      34 

Political  Liberty  in  America 36 

CARL  SCHURZ   38 

An  Immigrant's  Tribute  to  Lincoln   39 

"True  Americanism"    40 

EDWIN  LAWRENCE  GODKIN   44 

An  Immigrant's  Faith  in  Democracy 45 

JOHN  BOYLE  O'REILLY   52 

"The  Exile  of  the  Gael" 52 

"The  Pilgrim   Fathers"    54 

"Liberty  Lighting  the  World"   55 

"America"    57 

HANS  MATTSON    58 

Scandinavian  Contribution  to  American  Nationality 59 

JACOB  RIIS   61 

"A    Young    Man's    Hero":    An    Immigrant's    Tribute    to 

Roosevelt    63 

JACOB  VAN  DER  ZEE  66 

"Why  Dutch  Emigrants  Turned  to  America"  67 

EDWARD  BOK  -. 71 

OSCAR  SOLOMON  STRAUS  72 

"America  and  the  Spirit  of  American  Judaism" 73 

FELIX  ADLER  77 

The  American  Ideal  78 

MARY   ANTIN    82 

An    Immigrant's    Tribute    to    the    Public    School    and    to 

George  Washington    83 

"The  Law  of  the  Fathers":  A  View  of  the  Declaration  of 

Independence     89 


♦Several  titles  have  been  supplied  by  the  editor;  those  given  in 
the  words  of  the  author  are  enclosed  in  quotation  marks. 


18  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

ABRAHAM  MITRIE  RIHBANY   91 

America  Offers  Something  Better  than  Money  92 

An  Immigrant  Tells  his  Struggles  with  the  English  Lan- 
guage      94 

EDWARD   ALFRED   STEINER    96 

"The  Criminal   Immigrant"   97 

Industrialism  and  the  Immigrant  105 

GEORGE  A.  GORDON  in 

"The  Foreign-born  American  Citizen":  Cost,  Privilege  and 

Duties  of  his  Citizenship   112 

SERAPHIM  G.  CANOUTAS 121 

Americanization:  Its  Principles  and  Meaning 123 

STEFANO  MIELE    125 

Some  Obstacles  to  Americanization 126 

JOHN   KULAMER    130 

"The  American  Spirit  and  Americanization"  131 

ENRICO  C.  SARTORIO   136 

Patronizing  the  Foreigner  137 

Training   for   Citizenship    140 

OTTO  HERMANN  KAHN   143 

"Capital  and  Labor — A  Fair  Deal"  144 

MARCUS  ELI  RAVAGE  150 

The   New   Immigration    151 

What  College  Life  in  the  West  Did  for  an  Immigrant  ...  152 

ELIZABETH   G.  STERN   160 

The  Pathos  of  Re-adjustment 161 

ROBERT  M.  WERNAER  166 

"The  Soul  of  America" 167 

"We  Must  Be  True"   172 

ANGELO   PATRI    173 

An  Immigrant  and  His  Father  174 

An  Immigrant  and  the  Children 177 

ANZIA  YEZIERSKA   181 

"How  I  Found  America"  182 


CONTENTS 


LIST    OF    AUTHORS    WITH    THEIR    WRITINGS     FROM 

WHICH     SELECTIONS     HAVE     BEEN     TAKEN 

FOR  INCLUSION  IN  THIS  VOLUME 

PAGE 

Adler,   Felix   77 

The  World  Crisis  and  Its  Meaning 
Antin,  Mary   82 

The  Promised  Land 

They  Who  Knock  at  Our  Gates 

Bok,  Edward    71 

Canoutas,  Seraphim  G 121 

Hellenism  in  America 
D'Arusmont,  Frances   (1795-1852)    29 

Views  of  Society  and  Manners  in  America 
Godkin,  Edwin  L.   (1831-1902)    44 

Problems  of  Modern  Democracy 
Gordon,  George  A 1 1 1 

The  Appeal  of  the  Nation 
Kahn,  Otto  H 143 

Capital  and  Labor — A  Fair  Deal.    Pam.  pub.  by  the  author 
Kulamer,  John  130 

The  American  Spirit  and  Americanization 
Lieber,  Francis  (1800-1872)    33 

The  Stranger  in  America 
Mattson,  Hans  (1832-1893)    58 

Reminiscences 
Miele,   Stef ano    125 

America   As  a   Place   to   Make   Money.       (In    "World's 

Work,"  December,  1920) 
O'Reilly,  John  Boyle   ( 1844-1890)    52 

Selected  Poems.    Kenedy 
Patri,  Angelo   173 

A  Schoolmaster  of  the  Great  City 
Ravage,  Marcus  E 150 

An  American  in  the  Making 
Rihbany,  Abraham  M 91 

A  Far  Journey 
Riis,  Jacob    (1849-1914) 61 

The  Making  of  an  American 

Theodore  Roosevelt,  the  Citizen 
Sartorio,  Enrico  C 136 

Social  and  Religious  Life  of  Italians  in  America 
Schaff,  Philip   (1819-1893)    20 

American  Nationality.    Pam. 


CONTENTS 

MM 
Schurz,  Carl   (1829-1906)    38 

Abraham  Lincoln:  An  Essay.    Houghton 

Speeches.     1865.    Lippincott 
Steiner,  Edward  A 96 

From  Alien  to  Citizen 

Nationalizing  America 
Stern,  Elizabeth  G 160 

My  Mother  and  I 
Straus,  Oscar  S 72 

The  American  Spirit 
Van  der  Zee,  Jacob  66 

The  Hollanders  of  Iowa 
Wernaer,  Robert  M 166 

The  Soul  of  America 
Yezierska,  Anzia  181 

Hoiv  I  Found  America.      (In  "Century  Magazine,"  No- 
vember, 1920) 


The  American  Spirit  in  the  Writings 
of  Americans  of  Foreign  Birth 


PHILIP  SCHAFF 

It  is  as  a  theologian  and  as  editor  of  the  Schaff-Herzog  Encyclo- 
pedia and  other  religious  works  that  Philip  Schaff  is  chiefly  known ; 
but  there  is  a  slighter  work  of  his  which  hardly  deserves  the  neglect 
into  which  it  has  fallen, — that  is,  his  address  on  "American  Nation- 
ality," delivered  before  the  Irving  Society  of  the  College  of  St 
James,  Maryland,  June  nth,  1856.  He  was  born  at  Coire,  Switzer- 
land, and  was  educated  at  the  Stuttgart  Gymnasium  and  at  the 
universities  of  Tubingen,  Halle  and  Berlin.  After  traveling  for  a 
while  as  a  private  tutor  he  was  called  to  a  professorship  in  the 
theological  seminary  of  the  German  Reformed  Church  at  Mercers- 
burg,  Pennsylvania,  and  came  to  the  United  States  in  1844.  In 
1870  he  accepted  the  professorship  of  sacred  literature  in  Union 
Theological  Seminary,  New  York  City.  He  revisited  Europe  several 
times,  on  one  occasion  going  to  Russia  in  behalf  of  oppressed  people 
there.  It  is  not  unnatural  that  one  who  was  born  in  a  land  that 
has  sheltered  so  many  nationalities,  and  where  a  strong  spirit  of 
liberty  has  always  existed,  should  have  so  keen  and  farsighted  an 
appreciation  of  the  meaning  and  influence  of  the  cosmopolitan 
character  of  the  American   nation. 


Cosmopolitan  Character  of  American 
Nationality 

By  nationality  we  understand  the  peculiar  genius  of  a  peo- 
ple which  animates  its  institutions,  prompts  its  actions  and 
begets  a  feeling  of  common  interest  and  sympathy.  It  is  not 
the  result  of  any  compact,  but  an  instinct  of  human  nature 
in  its  social  capacity,  an  expansion  of  the  inborn  love  of  self 
and  kindred.  To  hate  his  own  countrymen  is  as  unnatural 
as  to  hate  his  own  brothers  and  sisters. 

Nationality  grows  with  the  nation  itself  and  acts  as  a  pow- 
erful stimulus  in  its  development.  But  on  the  other  side  it 
presupposes  an  organized  state  of  society  and  is  the  result  of 
a  historical  process.  Barbarians  have  no  nationality,  because 
they  are  no  nations,  but  simply  material  for  nations.  It  is 
not  only  the  community  of  origin  and  language,  but  also  the 
community  of  rights  and  duties,  of  laws  and  institutions,  of 
deeds  and  sufferings,  of  freedom  and  oppression,  of  literature 
and  art,  of  virtue  and  religion,  that  enters  into  the  definition 
of  a  nation  and  gives  vigor  to  the  sense  of  nationality.  His- 
torical reminiscences  of  glory  and  woe,  whether  preserved  in 
monuments,  or  written  records,  or  oral  traditions,  popular 
songs  and  national  airs,  such  as  "God  save  the  Queen," 
"Ye  mariners  of  England,"  "Rule,  Britannia,"  "Scots  wha 
hae  with  Wallace  bled,"  "Allons  enfants  de  la  patrie,"  "Was 
ist  des  Deutschen  Vaterland,"  "The  Star  Spangled  Banner," 
"Hail,  Columbia,"  contribute  powerfully  to  strengthen  the 
national  tie  and  to  kindle  the  fire  of  national  enthusiasm. 

Nationality  begets  patriotism,  one  of  the  noblest  of  natural 
virtues  that  has  filled  the  pages  of  history  with  so  many  heroic 
deeds  and  sacrifices.  Who  can  read  without  admiration  the 
immortal  story  of  Gideon,  Leonidas,  Cincinnatus,  Horatius 
Codes,  William  Tell,  Arnold  von  Winkelried,  the  Maid  of 


22  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN   THE   WRITINGS 

Orleans,  John  Hampden,  Prince  William  of  Orange, 
Andreas  Hofer,  George  Washington,  who  lived  or  died  for 
their  country  ? 

True  patriotism  does  not  imply  hatred  or  contempt  of  for- 
eigners, and  is  entirely  compatible  with  a  proper  regard  for 
the  rights  and  welfare  of  other  nations,  j*ust  as  self-love  and 
self-respect  may  and  should  coexist  with  the  most  generous 
philanthropy.  A  narrow-minded  and  narrow-hearted  na- 
tionalism which  walls  out  the  life  of  the  world,  and  for  this 
very  reason  condemns  itself  to  perpetual  imprisonment  in  the 
treadmill  of  its  own  pedantry  and  conceit,  may  suit  semi- 
barbarians,  or  the  stagnant  heathen  civilization  of  China  and 
Japan*,  but  not  an  enlightened  Christian  people.  True  and 
false  nationalism  and  patriotism  are  related  to  each  other,  as 
self-love  to  selfishness.  The  first  is  a  law  of  nature,  the  sec- 
ond a  vice.  We  respect  a  man  in  the  same  proportion  in 
which  his  self-love  expands  into  love  of  kindred  and  country, 
and  his  patriotism  into  love  of  humanity  at  large.  Washing- 
ton was  always  generous  to  the  enemy  and  was  the  first  to 
establish  amicable  relations  with  England  after  the  conclu- 
sion of  the  American  war.  The  Christian  religion,  which 
commands  us  to  love  God  supremely  and  our  neighbor  as  our- 
selves, tends  to  purify  and  elevate  patriotism,  like  every  other 
natural  virtue,  by  emancipating  it  from  the  selfish,  over- 
bearing, all-grasping  passion  of  conquest,  and  making  it  con- 
tributory to  the  general  welfare  of  the  human  family.  One 
of  the  noblest  acts  of  the  English  nation,  as  a  nation,  is  the 
disinterested  abolition  of  the  African  slave  trade. 

The  events  of  modern  times  tend  more  and  more  to  break 
down  the  barriers  between  the  nations,  to  bring  the  ends  of 
the  earth  together  and  to  realize  the  unity  and  universality 
of  the  human  race. 

This  we  must  steadily  keep  in  view,  if  we  would  under- 
stand the  distinctive  character  and  mission  of  the  American 
nation;  i.  e.,  the  people  of  the  United  States,  who  are  em- 
phatically called  by  that  name,  as  the  chief  bearers  of  the 

•The  reader  will,  of  course,  note  th*t  this  statement  was  made  prior 
to  the  modern  awakening  in  these  Oriental  countries. 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  23 

historical  life  and  future  significance  of  the  entire  Western 
Continent. 

In  discussing  this  interesting  topic,  we  shall  avoid,  of 
course,  the  whirlpool  of  party  politics,  and  endeavor  to  rise 
above  those  violent  sectional  strifes,  which,  for  some  time 
past,  have  been  and  are  still  agitating  our  country  on  the 
question  of  the  true  nature  of  Americanism. 

Of  all  the  great  nations  of  the  earth  none  has  entered  into 
existence  under  more  favorable  auspices  and  prospects,  none 
is  better  prepared  and  more  clearly  called  to  represent  a 
compact,  well  defined  and  yet  expansive,  world-embracing 
nationality,  than  the  American.  Our  motto,  E  Pluribus 
Unum,  is  an  unconscious  prophecy  of  our  national  character 
and  destiny,  as  pointed  out  by  the  irresistible  course  of  events 
and  the  indications  of  Providence.  Out  of  many  nations, 
yea,  out  of  all  the  nations  of  Christendom,  is  to  be  gathered 
the  one  cosmopolitan  nation  of  America  on  the  strong  and 
immovable  foundation  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race.  .  .  . 

Let  us  now  proceed  to  an  analysis  of  the  different  elements, 
which  enter  into  the  composition  of  the  American  nationality 
and  will,  in  their  combined  action,  enable  it  to  fulfil  its  great 
destiny. 

It  is  evident  to  the  most  superficial  observer  that  the  basis 
of  our  national  character  is  English.  It  is  so,  not  only  in 
language,  but  also  in  manners  and  customs,  in  our  laws  and 
institutions,  in  the  structure  of  our  domestic,  political  and 
ecclesiastical  life,  in  our  literature  and  religion.  It  is  per- 
fectly idle  to  think  that  this  country  will  ever  become  Ger- 
man, or  French,  or  Irish,  or  Dutch.  Let  them  emigrate  by 
hundreds  of  thousands  from  the  continent  of  Europe,  they 
will  modify  and  enrich,  but  they  can  never  destroy  or  mate- 
rially change  the  Anglo-Saxon  ground-element  of  the  Ameri- 
can people.  .  .  . 

But  with  all  due  regard  for  good  old  England,  America 
is  by  no  means  intended  to  be  a  mere  copy  or  continuation  of 
it.  If  our  nationality,  owing  to  its  youth  and  the  many  for- 
eign elements  still  entering  into  its  composition,  is  less  solid 
and  compact  than  that  of  our  older  brother,  it  is,  on  the 


24  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN    THE   WRITINGS 

other  hand,  more  capable  of  expansion  and  development;  it 
is  composed  of  a  greater  variety  of  material  and  destined  ulti- 
mately for  more  comprehensive  ends  by  the  Almighty  Ruler 
of  nations,  who  assigned  us  not  an  island,  but  a  continent 
for  a  home,  and  two  oceans  for  a  field  of  action. 

If  ever  a  nation  was  laid  out  on  a  truly  cosmopolitan  basis 
and  gifted  with  an  irresistible  power  of  attraction,  it  is  the 
American.  Here  where  our  globe  ends  its  circuit  seems  to 
terminate  the  migration  of  the  human  race.  To  our  shores 
they  come  in  an  unbroken  stream  from  every  direction.  Even 
the  tribes  of  Africa  and  Asia  are  largely  represented 
amongst  us  and  call  our  country  their  home.  But  whatever 
may  be  the  ultimate  fate  of  the  red  man,  the  negro  and  the 
Chinese,  who  are  separated  from  us  by  the  unsurmountable 
difference  of  race,  it  is  evident  that  all  the  civilized  nations 
of  Europe,  especially  those  of  Germanic  origin,  have  con- 
tributed and  will  continue  to  contribute  to  our  stock.  They 
meet  here  on  the  common  ground  of  freedom  and  equality, 
to  renew  their  youth  and  to  commingle  at  last  into  one 
grand  brotherhood,  speaking  one  language,  pervaded  by  one 
spirit,  obeying  the  same  laws,  laboring  for  one  aim,  and  filling 
in  these  ends  of  the  earth  the  last  and  the  richest  chapter  in 
the  history  of  the  world.  As  Europe  is  a  great  advance  on 
the  civilization  of  Asia,  so  we  have  reason  to  believe  that 
America  will  be  in  the  end  a  higher  continuation  of  the  con- 
solidated life  of  Europe.  The  eyes  of  the  East  are  instinct- 
ively turned  to  the  West,  and  civilization  follows  the  march 
of  the  sun. 

The  history  of  the  colonization  and  growth  of  this  country 
strongly  supports  the  view  here  taken.  The  descendants  of 
England  were  indeed  the  chief,  but  by  no  means  the  only 
agents  in  the  Colonial  period.  The  Dutch  on  the  banks  of 
die  Hudson,  the  Swedes  on  the  Delaware,  the  Germans  in 
Pennsylvania  and  the  neighboring  States,  the  Huguenots  in 
South  Carolina,  New  York  and  Boston,  were  amongst  our 
earliest  and  most  useful  settlers.  In  a  more  recent  period 
Scotland,  Ireland  and  all  parts  of  Germany  have  made  the 
largest  contributions  to  our  population.     Florida,  California 


OF  AMERICANS   OF   FOREIGN    BIRTH  2$ 

and  New  Mexico  are  of  Spanish  origin.  The  French 
claimed  once  by  right  of  exploration  and  partial  occupation 
the  immense  central  valley  from  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence 
to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  between  the  Alleghenies  and 
the  Rocky  Mountain ;  and  although  these  possessions  have 
long  since  been  ceded  to  England  and  the  United  States, 
the  French  element  can  never  be  entirely  effaced  on  the  banks 
of  the  lower  Mississippi  or  in  Canada  East. 

In  the  Revolutionary  War  the  descendants  of  the  Conti- 
nental Europeans,  especially  the  Germans  of  Pennsylvania 
and  Virginia,  in  proportion  to  their  number,  fought  with  as 
much  zeal  and  success  and  shed  their  blood  as  freely  for  the 
independence  of  the  country  as  the  Anglo-Americans.  Some 
of  them,  as  the  Muhlenbergs  and  the  Hicsters,  acquired  con- 
siderable distinction  as  officers  of  the  army  or  members  of  the 
first  Congress. 

But  a  number  of  our  most  eminent  Revolutionary  heroes 
were  not  even  native  Americans,  but  came  from  different  na- 
tions to  offer  us  the  aid  of  their  means,  their  enthusiasm, 
their  military  skill  and  experience  in  the  hour  of  trial.  The 
Irish  Montgomery  died  for  us  at  the  gates  of  Quebec.  Gen- 
eral Mercer,  who  fell  in  the  battle  of  Princeton,  was  a 
native  of  Scotland.  Kosciusko,  the  Pole,  paid  his  early  vows 
to  liberty  in  our  cause,  and  his  countryman,  Pulaski,  perished 
for  it  at  Savannah.  The  noble  Germans,  Baron  de  Kalb, 
who  shared  with  Gaines  the  glory  of  capturing  Burgoyne 
and  fell  in  the  battle  of  Camden  in  South  Carolina,  bleeding 
of  seven  wounds,  and  Steuben,  the  pupil  of  Frederic  the 
Great,  and  the  Seven  Years  War,  who  left  a  handsome  pen- 
sion to  serve  his  adopted  country  and  helped  to  decide  the 
day  at  Yorktown,  crowned  in  the  new  world  the  high  mili- 
tary reputation  which  they  had  previously  acquired  in  the 
old ;  they  were  amongst  the  most  experienced  officers  in  the 
American  army,  and  did  it  essential  service,  especially  by 
training,  with  immense  labor,  the  raw  recruits,  and  preparing 
them  for  the  victories  of  the  battle-field.  Our  Congress 
knew  well  how  to  appreciate  their  merits,  by  erecting  to  the 
former  a  monument  at  Annapolis,  and  by  voting  to  the  latter 


26  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN    THE   WRITINGS 

a  handsome  annual  pension,  to  which  the  legislatures  of 
Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey  and  New  York  added  large  dona- 
tions of  land.  France  threw  the  weight  of  her  powerful 
moral  influence  and  material  aid  into  our  scale,  and  sent  us 
the  Count  de  Rochambeau,  Baron  de  Viomenil,  and  especi- 
ally the  Marquis  of  Lafayette,  the  citizen  of  two  worlds, 
whose  name  will  be  handed  down  to  the  latest  American,  as 
well  as  French  posterity,  in  inseparable  connection  with 
Washington.  The  West  Indies  gave  us  Alexander  Hamil- 
ton, who  fought  gallantly  in  the  war,  and,  after  its  conclu- 
sion, organized  our  financial  credit  and  took  the  most  dis- 
tinguished part  in  the  formation  and  defence  of  our  Federal 
Constitution,  thus  joining  to  the  laurels  of  the  battle-field  the 
more  enduring  honors  of  peace,  like  his  friend,  the  Father 
of  his  Country,  whom  we  justly  revere  and  love  as  "first  in 
war,  first  in  peace,  and  first  in  the  hearts  of  his  country- 
men." 

Thus  all  the  leading  nations  of  Christendom  were  actively 
and  honorably  represented  in  the  first  settlement  of  our 
country,  and  in  that  great  struggle  which  resulted  in  the 
birth  of  a  new  nation,  and  thus  earned  a  title  to  a  share  in 
the  blessings  of  its  freedom.  .  .  . 
y  As  long,  then,  as  we  have  such  an  immense  body  of  land 
waiting  for  living  men,  and  such  a  gigantic  task  of  the  future 
before  us,  there  is  no  cause  to  discourage  immigration.  Let 
this  continent  of  land  continue  to  attract  another  continent 
crowded  with  men,  that  they  may  thus  both  prove  a  blessing 
to  each  other.  How  could  we  cherish  a  proscriptive  spirit 
without  striking  at  the  fundamental  creed  and  glory  of  our 
institutions?  How  could  we  indulge  in  hatred  of  foreigners 
and  shut  the  gate  to  the  stranger,  without  insulting  the  mem- 
ory of  our  own  fathers  and  of  the  fathers  of  this  country? 
Let  us  never  forget  the  sacred  trust  of  civil  and  religious 
liberty  committed  to  us;  never  forget  our  past  history  and 
our  comprehensive  destiny.  Ourselves  the  children  of  the 
pilgrims  of  a  former  generation,  let  us  welcome  the  pilgrims 
of  the  present  day,  and  open  a  hospitable  asylum  to  the  op- 
pressed and  persecuted  of  every  Christian  nation.     Favored 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  2^ 

by  the  free  gift  of  Providence  with  a  territory  almost  as 
large  as  Europe,  and  capable  of  sustaining  ten  times  the 
amount  of  our  present  population,  let  us  cordially  invite  and 
encourage  the  immigrants,  till  prairies  and  forests,  and  moun- 
tains and  valleys  resound  with  the  songs  of  living  men  and 
the  praises  of  God. 

Here  are  our  millions  of  acres  stretching  towards  the  set- 
ting sun  and  teeming  with  hidden  wealth,  that  must  be  made 
available  for  the  benefit  of  society.  Here  is  room  enough 
for  all  the  science,  learning,  art,  wisdom,  virtue  and  religion 
of  Europe,  that,  transplanted  into  a  virgin  soil  and  breathing 
the  atmosphere  of  freedom,  they  may  bring  forth  new  blos- 
soms and  fruit  and  open  a  new  epoch  in  the  onward  march 
of  civilization.  Here  is  the  general  congress  of  the  noblest 
nations  of  Christendom,  the  sterling,  energetic  Briton;  the 
strong-willed,  enterprising  Scotch;  the  hard-working,  gen- 
erous Irish;  the  industrious,  deep-thinking  German;  the  hon- 
est, liberty-loving  Swiss;  the  hardy,  thrifty  Scandinavian; 
the  even-tempered,  tenacious  Dutch;  the  easy,  elegant 
Frenchman;  the  earnest,  dignified  Spaniard;  the  ingenious, 
imaginative  Italian;  the  patriotic,  high-minded  Magyar  and 
Pole, — that  they  might  renew  their  youth,  and,  laying  aside 
their  prejudices  and  defects  and  uniting  their  virtues,  may 
commingle  into  the  one  American  nation,  the  freest,  the 
most  enlightened,  the  most  comprehensive  of  all,  the  nation 
of  the  new  world,  the  nation  of  the  future.  .  .  . 

The  destiny  and  mission  of  such  a  cosmopolitan  nation 
can  hardly  be  estimated.  It  must  be  majestic  as  our  rivers, 
magnificent  as  the  Niagara  Falls,  lofty  as  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains, vast  as  our  territory,  deep  as  the  two  oceans  around 
it,  far-reaching  as  the  highways  of  commerce  that  already 
carries  our  name  and  influence  to  the  remotest  regions  of  the 
globe.  History  points  to  a  boundless  future  before  it,  and 
nothing  can  prevent  it  from  filling  the  most  important  pages 
in  the  annals  of  coming  centuries  [except]  its  own  unfaith- 
fulness to  its  providential  trust.  .  .  . 

Such  high  views  on  the  destiny  of  our  nation,  so  far  from 
nourishing  the  spirit  of  vanity  and  self-glorification,  ought 


28  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN    THE    WRITINGS 

rather  to  humble  and  fill  us  with  a  deep  sense  of  our  respon- 
sibility to  the  God  of  nations,  who  entrusted  us  with  a  great 
mission  for  the  world  and  the  Church,  not  from  any  superior 
excellency  of  our  own,  but  from  free  choice  and  an  inscrut- 
able decree  of  infinite  wisdom.  Nor  should  we  forget  that 
there  are  fearful  tendencies  and  dangers  growing  up  in  our 
national  life,  which  threaten  to  unfit  us  for  our  work  and  to 
expose  us  to  the  judgment  of  the  Almighty  Ruler  of  .the  Uni- 
verse, who  is  not  bound  to  any  particular  human  instrumen- 
tality, but  can  raise  a  new  generation  on  the  ruins  of  our  own 
to  carry  out  His  designs.  It  is  only  in  steady  view  of  these 
dangers,  and  by  an  earnest  struggle  against  evil  temptations, 
that  we  can  at  all  succeed  and  accomplish  the  great  ends  for 
which  Providence  has  called  us  into  existence. 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  29 


FRANCES  D'ARUSMONT 

Frances  D'Arusmont,  better  known  as  Frances  Wright,  was  born 
in  Dundee,  Scotland.  She  seems  to  have  inherited  the  intellectual- 
ity and  liberal  feeling  of  her  father,  who  was  a  man  of  independent 
means  and  considerable  accomplishments.  Scarcely  three  years  after 
her  birth  in  1795,  she  lost  both  her  parents  and  was  brought  up  by 
a  maternal  aunt  in  England.  She  was  largely  self-educated,  and 
from  early  youth  was  keenly  interested  in  history,  particularly  the 
history  and  condition  of  the  United  States.  This  interest  found  def- 
inite expression  in  her  determination  to  sail  for  America  in  18 18, 
where  she  spent  two  years  in  the  States,  publishing  in  1821  her 
"Views  of  Society  and  Manners  in  America,"  a  series  of  letters  to  a 
friend  in  England.  While  it  is  true  that  these  letters  are  filled  with 
prepossessions,  they  had  a  wholesome  effect  in  counterbalancing  a 
great  deal  of  ignorance  about  and  prejudice  against  the  United 
States  at  that  time.  After  going  back  to  Europe  for  a  short  stay, 
she  returned  to  the  United  States  in  1824,  eager  to  solve  the  slave 
question.  In  pursuance  of  this  desire  she  bought  a  tract  of  land  in 
Tennessee,  about  fourteen  miles  northwest  of  Memphis,  and  settled 
negro  slaves  on  it,  in  the  hope  that  they  would  work  out  their  own 
liberty  and  that  the  Southern  planters  would  be  induced  to  follow 
her  example.  The  experiment  proved  a  failure,  and,  with  health 
broken,  she  was  ordered  to  Europe  by  her  physician.  On  return- 
ing to  America  again,  she  became  a  member  of  Robert  Owen's  colony 
at  New  Harmony  in  Indiana,  and  with  the  assistance  of  Robert 
Dale  Owen  conducted  a  socialistic  journal.  At  this  time  she  fre- 
quently appeared  on  the  lecture  platform  in  many  parts  of  the  coun- 
try. During  one  of  her  numerous  trips  to  Europe  she  was  married  in 
France  to  M.  Phiquepal-D'Arusmont.  She  died  at  Cincinnati  in 
1852. 

Though  no  fanatic,  Frances  D'Arusmont  had  several  qualities  of 
the  visionary,  courage  and  enthusiasm  without  prudence  and  judg- 
ment. It  is  greatly  to  her  credit  and  honor,  however,  that  she  was 
among  the  first  to  realize  the  importance  of  the  slavery  question  and 
to  make  an  effort  to  settle  it  amicably.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that 
•he  did  not  devote  her  life  solely  to  the  solution  of  this  momentous 
problem. 

The  selection  here  given  from  her  "Views  of  Society  and  Manners 
in  America,"  follows  the  text  of  the  first  New  York  edition,  1821. 


30  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN    THE    WRITINGS 

THE   CONSTITUTION   AND   ESTABLISHMENT 
OF   THE    FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

What  is  most  worthy  of  admiration  in  the  history  of 
America  is  not  merely  the  spirit  of  liberty  which  has  ever 
animated  her  people,  but  their  perfect  acquaintance  with  the 
science  of  government,  which  has  ever  saved  that  spirit  from 
preying  on  itself.  The  sages  who  laid  the  foundation  of  her 
greatness  possessed  at  once  the  pride  of  freemen  and  the 
knowledge  of  English  freemen;  in  building  the  edifice,  they 
knew  how  to  lay  the  foundation;  in  preserving  untouched 
the  rights  of  each  individual,  they  knew  how  to  prevent  his 
attacking  those  of  his  neighbor:  they  brought  with  them  the 
experience  of  the  best  governed  nation  then  existing;  and, 
having  felt  in  their  own  persons  the  errors  inherent  in  that 
constitution,  which  had  enlightened,  but  only  partly  pro- 
tected them,  they  knew  what  to  shun  as  well  as  what  to  imi- 
tate in  the  new  models  which  they  here  cast,  leisurely  and 
sagely,  in  a  new  and  remote  world.  Thus  possessed  from  the 
beginning  of  free  institutions,  or  else  continually  occupied  in 
procuring  or  defending  them,  the  Colonies  were  well  pre- 
pared to  assume  the  character  of  independent  States.  There 
was  less  of  an  experiment  in  this  than  their  enemies  sup- 
posed.* Nothing,  indeed,  can  explain  the  obstinacy  of 
the  English  ministry  at  the  commencement  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary struggle  but  the  supposition  that  they  were  wholly 
ignorant  of  the  history  of  the  people  to  whom  they  were  op- 
posed. May  I  be  forgiven  the  observation,  that  the  inquiries 
of  .  .  .  have  led  me  into  the  belief  that  some  candid  and 
well-informed  English  gentlemen  of  the  present  day  have 
almost  as  little  acquaintance  with  it  as  had  Lord  North. 

•Mr.  Burke,  who  seems  to  have  possessed  a  more  thorough  acquaint- 
ance with  the  institutions  and  character  of  the  Colonists  tihan  any 
other  British  statesman,  insisted  much  on  "the  form  of  their  provincial 
legislative  assemblies,"  when  tracing  the  consequences  likely  to  result 
from  the  oppressive  tcts  of  parliament.  "Their  governments,"  observed 
this  orator,  "are  popular  in  a  high  degree ;  some  are  merely  popular ; 
In  all,  the  popular  representative  is  the  most  weighty  ;  and  this  shar* 
of  the  people,  in  their  ordinary  government,  never  fails  to  inspire  then* 
with  lofty  sentiments,  and  with  a  strong  aversion  from  whatever 
tends  to  deprive  them  of  their  chief  importance."     (Author's  note.) 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  3 1 

Respecting  the  Revolution  itself,  the  interest  of  its  military 
history  is  such  as  to  fix  the  attention  of  the  most  thoughtless 
readers;  but  in  this,  foreigners  sometimes  appear  to  imagine, 
was  expended  the  whole  virtue  of  America.  That  a  country 
which  could  put  forth  so  much  energy,  magnanimity,  and 
wisdom,  as  appeared  in  that  struggle,  should  suddenly  lose  a 
claim  to  all  these  qualities,  would  be  no  less  surprising  than 
humiliating.  If  we  glance  at  the  civil  history  of  these  re- 
publics since  the  era  of  their  independence,  do  we  find  no 
traces  of  the  same  character?  Were  we  to  consider  only 
the  national  institutions,  the  mild  and  impartial  laws,  the 
full  establishment  of  the  rights  of  conscience,  the  multipli- 
cation of  schools  and  colleges  to  an  extent  unknown  in  any 
other  country  of  the  world,  all  the  improvements  in  every 
branch  of  internal  policy  which  have  placed  this  people  in 
their  present  state  of  peace  and  unrivalled  prosperity,  we 
must  allow  them  to  be  not  only  wise  to  their  interests,  but 
alive  to  the  pleas  of  humanity;  but  there  are  not  wanting  in- 
stances of  a  yet  more  liberal  policy. 

How  seldom  is  it  that  history  affords  us  the  example  of  a 
voluntary  sacrifice  on  the  part  of  separate  communities  to 
further  the  common  good!  It  appears  to  me  that  the  short 
history  of  America  furnishes  us  with  more  examples  of  this 
kind  than  that  of  any  other  nation,  ancient  or  modern. 
Throughout  the  war  of  the  Revolution,  and  for  some  years 
preceding  it,  the  public  feeling  may  be  said  to  have  been  un- 
usually excited.  At  such  times,  men,  and  societies  of  men, 
are  equal  to  actions  beyond  the  strength  of  their  virtue  at 
cooler  moments.  Passing  on,  therefore,  to  the  peace  of  1783, 
we  find  a  number  of  independent  republics  gradually  recon- 
ciling their  separate  and  clashing  interests,  each  yielding 
something  to  promote  the  advantage  of  all,  and  sinking  the 
pride  of  individual  sovereignty  in  that  of  the  united  whole. 
The  remarks  made  by  Ramsay  on  the  adoption  of  the  federal 
constitution  are  so  apposite  that  I  cannot  resist  quoting  them : 

"The  adoption  of  this  constitution  was  a  triumph  of  virtue 
and  good  sense  over  the  vices  and  follies  of  human  nature; 
in  some  respects,  the  merit  of  it  is  greater  than  that  of  the 


32  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN    THE    WRITINGS 

Declaration  of  Independence.  The  worst  of  men  can  be 
urged  to  make  a  spirited  resistance  to  invasion  of  their 
rights;  but  higher  grades  of  virtue  are  requisite  to  induce 
freemen,  in  the  possession  of  a  limited  sovereignty,  voluntar- 
ily to  surrender  a  portion  of  their  natural  liberties;  to  im- 
pose on  themselves  those  restraints  of  good  government  which 
bridle  the  ferocity  of  man,  compel  him  to  respect  the  claims 
of  others,  and  to  submit  his  rights  and  his  wrongs  to  be  de- 
cided upon  by  the  voices  of  his  fellow  citizens.  The  in- 
stances of  nations  which  have  vindicated  their  liberty  by 
the  sword  are  many ;  of  those  which  have  made  a  good  use  of 
their  liberty  when  acquired  are  comparatively  few." 

Nor  did  the  liberality  of  these  republics  evince  itself  only 
in  the  adoption  of  the  general  government.  We  find  some 
making  voluntary  concessions  of  vast  territories,  that  they 
might  be  devoted  to  national  purposes;  others  releasing  part 
of  their  own  people  from  existing  engagements,  and  leaving 
them  to  consult  their  wishes  and  convenience  by  forming 
themselves  into  new  communities. 

Should  we  contrast  this  policy  with  that  employed  by  other 
nations,  we  might  hastily  pronounce  this  people  to  be  singu- 
larly free  from  the  ordinary  passions  of  humanity.  But,  no; 
they  are  only  singularly  enlightened  in  the  art  of  govern- 
ment; they  have  learned  that  there  is  no  strength  without 
union,  no  union  without  good  fellowship,  and  no  good  fellow- 
ship without  fair  dealing;  and,  having  learned  this,  they  are 
only  singularly  fortunate  in  being  able  to  reduce  their 
knowledge  to  practice. 


OF   AMFRICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  33 


FRANCIS   LIEBER 

In  these  latter  days  when  the  world  has  been  inclined  to  wonder 
whether  any  good  could  come  out  of  Prussia,  it  is  interesting  to  re- 
call that  Francis  Lieber,  who  came  to  the  United  States  in  1827  in 
the  vanguard  of  the  German  political  refugees  of  the  early  nineteenth 
century,  was  born  in  Berlin,  March  18,  1800.  His  life  was  one  of 
intense  activity,  both  physical  and  mental.  He  fought  in  the  Prus- 
sian army  at  Ligny  and  at  Waterloo,  and  was  severely  wounded  in 
the  attack  on  Namur.  After  the  Napoleonic  wars  he  studied  in  Ber- 
lin;  and  in  1819,  because  of  his  political  ideas,  he  was  imprisoned  on 
the  charge  of  plotting  against  the  government.  He  was  discharged 
without  trial ;  but,  being  forbidden  to  stay  at  the  Prussian  univer- 
sities, he  took  his  degree  at  Jena  in  1820.  After  taking  part  in 
the  Greek  Revolution  of  1821  he  went  to  Rome,  where  he  became  a 
tutor  in  the  family  of  the  famous  historian,  Niebuhr.  On  return- 
ing to  Berlin  he  was  rearrested  and  imprisoned,  but  released 
through  the  efforts  of  Niebuhr.  Tired  of  this  relentless  persecu- 
tion, he  left  his  native  land  forever  in  1825.  Before  embarking  for 
the  New  World  he  was  a  teacher  in  London  for  a  short  time. 

Lieber's  first  literary  undertaking  after  reaching  the  United  States 
was  the  editing  of  the  Encyclopaedia  Americana  in  Boston,  1827-32. 
For  the  next  twenty  years  he  was  professor  of  political  economy  in 
South  Carolina  College,  where  his  most  important  works  were  pro- 
duced,— "A  Manual  of  Political  Ethics,"  1838;  "Legal  and  Political 
Hermeneutics,"  1839;  "Civil  Liberty  and  Self-government,"  1852. 
In  1856  he  was  called  to  a  similar  professorship  in  Columbia  Col- 
lege, New  York.  He  was  member  of  the  French  Institute  and  other 
learned  societies  in  Europe  and  America. 

The  spirit  of  the  man  and  his  work  is  manifested  in  his  favorite 
motto,  Nullum  jus  sine  officio,  nullum  officium  sine  jure  ("No  right 
without  its  duties,  no  duty  without  its  rights").  It  is  not  necessary 
to  mention  his  numerous  writings  except  the  one  of  immediate  inter- 
est here, — "The  Stranger  in  America,"  published  in  1834,  a  series 
of  letters  written  to  a  friend  in  Germany.  In  the  selection  that  fol- 
lows, the  reader  will  be  struck  by  the  wisdom  and  foresight  in  point- 
ing out  the  danger  of  segregation  and  the  futility  of  German  immi- 
grants attempting  to  erect  a  German  state  within  the  United  States. 


34  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN    THE   WRITINGS 

A   GERMAN    IMMIGRANT   POINTS   OUT 
THE    DANGERS    OF   SEGREGATION 

The  Germans,  as  I  said,  form  a  most  valuable  addition  to 
our  population,  when  mingled  with  the  great  predominant 
race  inhabiting  the  northern  part  of  this  continent.  When- 
ever colonists  settle  among  a  different  nation,  in  such  num- 
bers and  so  closely  together  that  they  may  live  on  among 
themselves,  without  intermixture  with  the  original  inhabi- 
tants, a  variety  of  inconveniences  will  necessarily  arise.  Liv- 
ing in  an  isolated  state,  the  current  of  civilization  of  the 
country  in  which  they  live  does  not  reach  them;  and  they 
are  equally  cut  off  from  that  of  their  mother  country:  men- 
tal stagnation  is  the  consequence.  They  remain  a  foreign 
element,  an  ill-joined  part  of  the  great  machinery  of  which 
they  still  form,  and  needs  must  form,  a  part.  Sometimes, 
indeed,  particular  circumstances  may  alter  the  view  of  the 
case.  When  the  French  Protestant  colonists  were  received 
into  Prussia,  it  was  perhaps  judicious  to  allow  them,  for  ex- 
ample in  Berlin,  to  form  for  a  time  a  community  for  them- 
selves, to  have  their  own  jurisdiction,  schools,  and  churches, 
because  they  were  more  perfect  in  many  branches  of  indus- 
try than  the  people  among  whom  they  settled ;  and,  had  they 
been  obliged  to  immerge  forthwith,  their  skill,  so  desirable 
to  those  who  received  them,  might  have  been  lost. 

At  present,  however,  they  too  are  immerged  in  the  mass  of 
the  population.  Besides,  the  inconvenience  arising  from  their 
forming  a  separate  community  was  never  very  great,  since 
they  were  few  in  number,  and  belonged  by  their  professions 
to  the  better  educated  classes.  But  take  an  example  in  the 
Hussites,  who  settled  in  Germany;  remember  the  Bohemian 
village  near  Berlin,  called  Rixdorf,  the  inhabitants  of  which 
obstinately  refused  intermarrying  with  Germans,  and  many 
of  whom,  until  very  recently,  continued  to  speak  Bohemian 
only.  Those,  therefore,  who  lately  proposed  to  form  a 
whole  German  state  in  our  west,  ought  to  weigh  well  their 
project  before  they  set  about  it,  if  ever  it  should  become 


OF   AMERIQANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  35 

possible  to  put  this  scheme  into  practice,  which  I  seriously 
doubt.  "Ossification,"  as  the  Germans  call  it,  would  be  the 
unavoidable  consequence.  These  colonists  would  be  unable,  S 
though  they  might  come  by  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands, 
to  develop  for  themselves  German  literature,  German  lan- 
guage, German  law,  German  science,  German  art;  every- 
thing would  remain  stationary  at  the  point  where  it  was 
when  they  brought  it  over  from  the  mother  country,  and 
within  less  than  fifty  years  our  colony  would  degenerate 
into  an  antiquated,  ill-adapted  element  of  our  great  national 
system,  with  which,  sooner  or  later,  it  must  assimilate.  " 
What  a  voluntary  closing  of  the  eyes  to  light  would  it  be 
for  a  colony  among  people  of  the  Anglican  race,  which,  in 
point  of  politics,  has  left  every  other  race  far  behind,  to 
strive  to  isolate  itself! 


36  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN   THE   WRITINGS 


POLITICAL   LIBERTY   IN   AMERICA 

As  a  thousand  things  co-operated  in  ancient  Greece  to  pro- 
duce that  unrivalled  state  of  perfection  in  which  we  find  the 
fine  arts  to  have  been  there, — a  happy  constellation  of  the 
most  fortunate  stars, — so  a  thousand  favorable  circumstances 
concur  in  America  to  make  it  possible  that  a  far  greater 
amount  of  liberty  can  be  introduced  into  all  the  concerns  of 
her  political  society  than  ever  was  possible  before  with  any 
other  nation,  or  will  be  at  any  future  period,  yet  also  requir- 
ing its  sacrifices,  as  the  fine  arts  with  the  Greeks  required 
theirs. 

The  influence  of  this  nation  has  been  considerable  already ; 
it  will  be  much  more  so  yet  in  ages  to  come;  political  ideas 
will  be  developed  here,  and  have  a  decided  effect  on  the 
whole  European  race,  and,  for  aught  I  know,  upon  other 
races.  But  as  the  Grecian  art  has  kindled  the  sense  of  the 
beautiful  with  many  nations,  but  never  could  be  equalled 
again  (as  a  national  affair),  so  it  is  possible  that  political  no- 
tions, developed  here  and  received  by  other  nations,  will  have 
a  sound  influence  only  if  in  their  new  application  they  are 
modified  to  the  given  circumstances ;  for  it  is  not  in  the  power 
of  any  man  or  nation  to  create  all  those  circumstances  under 
the  shade  of  which  liberty  reposes  here.  Politics  is  civil  arch- 
itecture, and  a  poor  architect  indeed  is  he  who  forgets  three 
things  in  building:  the  place  where  the  building  is  to  be 
raised,  the  materials  with  which  he  has  to  build,  and  the  ob- 
ject for  which  the  structure  is  erected.  If  the  materials  are 
Jews  of  Palestine,  and  if  the  object  of  the  fabric  be  to  keep 
the  people  as  separate  from  neighbors  as  possible,  the  archi- 
tect would  not  obtain  his  end  by  a  constitution  similar  to  that 
of  one  of  our  new  States. 

It  was  necessary  for  the  Americans,  in  order  to  make  them 
fit  to  solve  certain  political  problems,  which,  until  their  solu- 
tion here,  were  considered  chimerical  (take  as  an  instance 
the  keeping  of  this  immense  country  without  a  garrison), 
that  they  should  descend  from  the  English,  should  begin  as 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  37 

persecuted  colonists  severed  from  the  mother  country,  and 
yet  loving  it  with  all  their  heart  and  all  their  soul;  to  have 
a  continent,  vast  and  fertile,  and  possessing  those  means  of 
internal  communication  which  gave  to  Europe  the  great  su- 
periority over  Asia  and  Africa ;  to  be  at  such  a  distance  from 
Europe  that  she  should  appear  as  a  map ;  to  be  mostly  Prot- 
estants, and  to  settle  in  colonies  with  different  charters,  se 
that,  when  royal  authority  was  put  down,  they  were  as  so 
many  independent  States,  and  yet  to  be  all  of  one  metal,  so 
that  they  never  ceased  morally  to  form  one  nation,  nor  to 
feel  as  such. 

You  may  say,  "Strange,  that  an  abuse  of  liberty,  as  this 
apparent  or  real  party  strife  in  election  contests  actually  is, 
should  lead  you  to  the  assertion  that  no  nation  is  fitter  for 
a  government  of  law."  Yet  I  do  repeat  it.  How  would  it 
be  with  other  nations?  It  would  be  after  an  election  of  this 
kind  that  the  real  trouble  would  only  begin;  we  see  an  in- 
stance in  South  America.  Here,  on  the  other  hand,  as  soon 
as  the  election  is  over,  the  contest  is  settled,  and  the  citizen 
obeys  the  law.  "Keep  to  the  right,  as  the  law  directs,"  you 
will  often  find  on  sign-boards  on  bridges  in  this  country.  It 
expresses  the  authority  which  the  law  here  possesses.  I 
doubt  very  much  whether  the  Romans,  noted  for  their  obe- 
dience to  the  law,  held  it  in  higher  respect  than  the  Ameri- 
cans. 


/ 


38  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN    THE   WRITINGS 


CARL   SCHURZ 

Carl  Schurz,  probably  the  most  eminent  of  German  immigrants 
to  the  United  States,  was  born  in  Rhenish  Prussia,  in  1829.  He 
came  to  America  in  1852  and  settled  in  Missouri,  from  which  State 
he  was  sent  to  Congress  as  Senator.  He  served  as  a  general  in  the 
Union  Army  during  the  Civil  War.  In  1875  he  removed  to  New 
York  City  and  was  editor  of  The  Evening  Post  from  1881  to  1884. 
He  was  active  in  support  of  civil  service  reform,  and  as  a  political 
thinker  commanded  high  respect.  His  most  notable  works  are  hi9 
"Speeches,"  his  "Reminiscences,"  a  "Life  of  Henry  Clay,"  and  "Abra- 
ham Lincoln:  an  Essay."  The  last  was  originally  published  in  The 
Atlantic  Monthly  as  a  review  of  "Abraham  Lincoln:  A  History,"  by 
Nicolay  and  Hay.  As  a  tribute  to  the  life  and  work  of  Lincoln  it 
is  worthy  to  stand  beside  the  "Commemoration  Ode"  of  Lowell  and 
the  memorial  poems  of  Whitman.  Both  from  his  natural  sym- 
pathies and  endowments  and  because  of  his  participation  in  the 
events  of  the  time,  Schurz  was  eminently  qualified  to  write  on  the 
subject  With  fine  enthusiasm  and  yet  avoiding  extravagant  eulogy, 
he  never  loses  sight  of  the  essentially  human  characteristics  of  the 
great  President.  The  following  passage  comprises  the  closing  words 
of  the  essay.  The  selections  on  "True  Americanism"  are  taken  from 
an  address  delivered  in  Faneuil  Hall,  Boston,  on  the  18th  of  April, 
i8S9- 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  39 


AN    IMMIGRANT'S    TRIBUTE    TO    LINCOLN 

To  the  younger  generation  Abraham  Lincoln  has  already 
become  a  half-mythical  figure,  which,  in  the  haze  of  historic 
distance,  grows  to  more  and  more  heroic  proportions,  but 
also  loses  in  distinctness  of  outline  and  feature.  This  is  in-  v/* 
deed  the  common  lot  of  popular  heroes;  but  the  Lincoln  le- 
gend will  be  more  than  ordinarily  apt  to  become  fanciful,  as 
his  individuality,  assembling  seemingly  incongruous  qualities 
and  forces  in  a  character  at  the  same  time  grand  and  most 
lovable,  was  so  unique,  and  his  career  so  abounding  in  start- 
ling contrasts.  As  the  state  of  society  in  which  Abraham 
Lincoln  grew  up  passes  away,  the  world  will  read  with  in- 
creasing wonder  of  the  man  who,  not  only  of  the  humblest 
origin,  but  remaining  the  simplest  and  most  unpretending  of 
citizens,  was  raised  to  a  position  of  power  unprecedented  in 
our  history;  who  was  the  gentlest  and  most  peace-loving  of 
mortals,  unable  to  see  any  creature  suffer  without  a  pang  in 
his  own  breast,  and  suddenly  found  himself  called  to  con- 
duct the  greatest  and  bloodiest  of  our  wars;  who  wielded 
the  power  of  government  when  stern  resolution  and  relent- 
less force  were  the  order  of  the  day,  and  then  won  and  ruled 
the  popular  mind  and  heart  by  the  tender  sympathies  of  his 
nature;  who  was  a  cautious  conservative  by  temperament 
and  mental  habit,  and  led  the  most  sudden  and  sweeping  so- 
cial revolution  of  our  time;  who,  preserving  his  homely 
speech  and  rustic  manner  even  in  the  most  conspicuous  posi- 
tion of  that  period,  drew  upon  himself  the  scoffs  of  polite 
society,  and  then  thrilled  the  soul  of  mankind  with  utter- 
ances of  wonderful  beauty  and  grandeur;  who,  in  his  heart 
the  best  friend  of  the  defeated  South,  was  murdered  because 
a  crazy  fanatic  took  him  for  its  most  cruel  enemy;  who, 
while  in  power,  was  beyond  measure  lampooned  and  ma- 
ligned by  sectional  passion  and  an  excited  party  spirit,  and 
around  whose  bier  friend  and  foe  gathered  to  praise  him — 
which  they  have  since  never  ceased  to  do — as  one  of  the 
greatest  of  Americans  and  the  best  of  men. 


49  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN    THE    WRITINGS 


TRUE   AMERICANISM 

It  is  one  of  the  earliest  recollections  of  my  boyhood  that 
one  summer  night  our  whole  village  was  stirred  up  by  an 
uncommon  occurrence.  I  say  our  village,  for  I  was  born 
not  far  from  the  beautiful  spot  where  the  Rhine  rolls  his 
green  waters  out  of  the  wonderful  gate  of  the  Seven  Moun- 
tains, and  then  meanders  with  majestic  tranquillity  through 
one  of  the  most  glorious  valleys  of  the  world.  That  night 
our  neighbors  were  pressing  around  a  few  wagons  covered 
with  linen  sheets  and  loaded  with  household  utensils  and 
boxes  and  trunks  to  their  utmost  capacity.  One  of  our 
neighboring  families  was  moving  far  away  across  a  great 
water,  and  it  was  said  they  would  never  again  return.  And 
I  saw  silent  tears  trickling  down  weather-beaten  cheeks,  and 
the  hands  of  rough  peasants  firmly  pressing  each  other,  and 
some  of  the  men  and  women  hardly  able  to  speak  when  they 
nodded  to  one  another  a  last  farewell.  At  last  the  train 
started  into  motion,  they  gave  three  cheers  for  America, 
and  then  in  the  first  gray  dawn  of  the  morning  I  saw  them 
wending  their  way  over  the  hill  until  they  disappeared  in  the 
shadow  of  the  forest.  And  I  heard  many  a  man  say,  how 
kappy  he  would  be  if  he  could  go  with  them  to  that  great 
and  free  country,  where  a  man  could  be  himself. 

That  was  the  first  time  that  I  heard  of  America,  and  my 
childish  imagination  took  possession  of  a  land  covered  partly 
with  majestic  trees,  partly  with  flowery  prairies,  immeasur- 
able to  the  eye,  and  intersected  with  large  rivers  and  broad 
lakes, — a  land  where  everybody  could  do  what  he  thought 
best,  and  where  nobody  need  be  poor  because  everybody  was 
free. 

And  later,  when  I  was  old  enough  to  read,  and  descrip- 
tions of  this  country  and  books  on  American  history  fell  into 
my  hands,  the  offspring  of  my  imagination  acquired  the  colors 
of  reality,  and  I  began  to  exercise  my  brain  with  the 
thought  what  man  might  be  and  become  when  left  perfectly 
free  to  himself.     And  still  later,  when  ripening  into  man- 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  41 

hood,  I  looked  up  from  my  schoolbooks  into  the  stir  and  bus- 
tle of  the  world,  and  the  trumpet-tones  of  struggling  human- 
ity struck  my  ear  and  thrilled  my  heart,  and  I  saw  my  na- 
tion shake  her  chains  in  order  to  burst  them,  and  I  heard 
a  gigantic,  universal  shout  for  Liberty  rising  up  to  the  skies ; 
and  at  last,  after  having  struggled  manfully  and  drenched 
the  earth  of  Fatherland  with  the  blood  of  thousands  of  noble 
beings,  I  saw  that  nation  crushed  down  again,  not  only 
by  overwhelming  armies,  but  by  the  dead  weight  of  customs 
and  institutions  and  notions  and  prejudices,  which  past  cen- 
turies had  heaped  upon  them,  and  which  a  moment  of  en- 
thusiasm, however  sublime,  could  not  destroy;  then  I  con- 
soled an  almost  despondent  heart  with  the  idea  of  a  youth- 
ful people  and  of  original  institutions  clearing  the  way  for  an 
untrammeled  development  of  the  ideal  nature  of  man.  Then 
I  turned  my  eyes  instinctively  across  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  and 
America  and  Americanism,  as  I  fancied  them,  appeared  to 
me  as  the  last  depositories  of  the  hopes  of  all  true  friends  of 
humanity. 

I  say  all  this,  not  as  though  I  indulged  in  the  presump- 
tuous delusion  that  my  personal  feelings  and  experience 
would  be  of  any  interest  to  you,  but  in  order  to  show  you 
what  America  is  to  the  thousands  of  thinking  men  in  the 
old  world,  who,  disappointed  in  their  fondest  hopes  and  de- 
pressed by  the  saddest  experience,  cling  with  their  last  rem- 
nant of  confidence  in  human  nature,  to  the  last  spot  on 
earth  where  man  is  free  to  follow  the  road  to  attainable 
perfection,  and  where,  unbiased  by  the  disastrous  influence 
of  traditional  notions,  customs,  and  institutions,  he  acts  on 
his  own  responsibility.  They  ask  themselves:  Was  it  but  a 
wild  delusion  when  we  thought  that  man  has  the  faculty  to 
be  free  and  to  govern  himself?  Have  we  been  fighting,  were 
we  ready  to  die,  for  a  mere  phantom,  for  a  mere  product 
of  a  morbid  imagination?  This  question  downtrodden  hu- 
manity cries  out  into  the  world,  and  from  this  country  it 
expects  an  answer.  .  .  . 

They  speak  of  the  greatness  of  the  Roman  Republic !  Oh, 
sir,  if  I  could  call  the  proudest  of  Romans  from  his  grave,  I 


42  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN    THE   WRITINGS 

would  take  him  by  the  hand  and  say  to  him,  Look  at  this 
picture,  and  at  this!  The  greatness  of  the  Roman  Republic 
consisted  in  its  despotic  rule  over  the  world  ;the  greatness  of  the 
American  Republic  consists  in  the  secured  right  of  man  to 
govern  himself.  The  dignity  of  the  Roman  citizen  consisted 
in  his  exclusive  privileges;  the  dignity  of  the  American  citi- 
zen consists  in  his  holding  the  natural  rights  of  his  neigh- 
bor just  as  sacred  as  his  own.  The  Roman  Republic  recog- 
nized and  protected  the  rights  of  the  citizen,  at  the  same 
time  disregarding  and  leaving  unprotected  the  rights  of  man; 
Roman  citizenship  was  founded  upon  monopoly,  not  upon 
the  claims  of  human  nature.  What  the  citizen  of  Rome 
claimed  for  himself,  he  did  not  respect  in  others;  his  own 
greatness  was  his  only  object;  his  own  liberty,  as  he  regarded 
it,  gave  him  the  privilege  to  oppress  his  fellow-beings.  His 
democracy,  instead  of  elevating  mankind  to  its  own  level, 
trampled  the  rights  of  man  into  the  dust.  The  security  of 
the  Roman  Republic,  therefore,  consisted  in  the  power  of 
the  sword ;  the  security  of  the  American  Republic  rests  in  the 
equality  of  human  rights !  The  Roman  Republic  perished  by 
the  sword;  the  American  Republic  will  stand  as  long  as  the 
equality  of  human  rights  remains  inviolate.  Which  of  the 
two  Republics  is  the  greater — the  Republic  of  the  Roman,  or 
the  Republic  of  man? 

Sir,  I  wish  the  words  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
"that  all  men  are  created  free  and  equal,  and  are  endowed 
with  certain  inalienable  rights,"  were  inscribed  upon  every 
gatepost  within  the  limits  of  this  Republic.  From 
this  principle  the  Revolutionary  Fathers  derived  their  claim 
to  independence;  upon  this  they  founded  the  institutions  of 
this  country,  and  the  whole  structure  was  to  be  the  living 
incarnation  of  this  idea.  This  principle  contains  the  pro- 
gramme of  our  political  existence.  It  is  the  most  progressive, 
and  at  the  same  time  the  most  conservative  one ;  the  most 
progressive,  for  it  takes  even  the  lowliest  members  of  the 
human  family  out  of  their  degradation,  and  inspires  them 
with  the  elevating  consciousness  of  equal  human  dignity;  the 
most  conservative,  for  it  makes  a  common  cause  of  individual 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  43 

rights.  From  the  equality  of  rights  springs  identity  of  our 
highest  interests;  you  cannot  subvert  your  neighbor's  rights 
without  striking  a  dangerous  blow  at  your  own.  And  when 
the  rights  of  one  cannot  be  infringed  without  finding  a  ready 
defence  in  all  others  who  defend  their  own  rights  in  de- 
fending his,  then,  and  only  then,  are  the  rights  of  all  safe 
against  the  usurpation  of  governmental  authority. 

This  general  identity  of  interests  is  the  only  thing  that 
can  guarantee  the  stability  of  democratic  institutions. 
Equality  of  rights,  embodied  in  general  self-government,  is 
the  great  moral  element  of  true  democracy;  it  is  the  only 
reliable  safety-valve  in  the  machinery  of  modern  society. 
There  is  the  solid  foundation  of  our  system  of  government;  • 
there  is  our  mission;  there  is  our  greatness;  there  is  our 
safety;  there,  and  nowhere  else!  This  is  true  Americanism, 
and  to  this  I  pay  the  tribute  of  my  devotion. 


44  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN   THE   WRITINGS 


EDWIN    LAWRENCE    GODKIN 

Edwin  Lawrence  Godkin  was  born  of  English  ancestry  at  Movne, 
County  Wicklow,  Ireland,  on  October  2,  183 1.  His  father,  the  Rev. 
James  Godkin,  a  Presbyterian  minister  of  literary  talents,  after  be- 
ing forced  from  his  pulpit  for  espousing  the  cause  of  Young  Ireland, 
became  a  journalist  of  some  distinction.  The  son  received  his  pre- 
paratory education  at  Armagh,  and  at  Silcoates  School,  Wakefield, 
Yorkshire.  In  1846  he  entered  Queen's  College,  Belfast.  After  grad- 
uating from  this  institution  in  1851,  he  went  to  London  to  studv  law 
at  Lincoln's  Inn.  After  some  journalistic  experience  in  the  Crimea 
and  in  Belfast,  he  came  to  America  in  1856  and  settled  in  New 
York.  His  real  career  began  with  the  founding  of  The  New  York 
Nation  in  1865.  His  connection  with  this  journal  was  both  long  and 
distinguished,  and  his  efforts  for  the  encouragement  of  a  sound  and 
enlightened  public  opinion  have  recently  been  appropriately  recog- 
nized in  the  semi-centenary  volume,  "Fifty  Years  of  American 
Idealism,"  edited  by  Gustav  Pollak.  He  contributed  many  incisive 
essays  on  political  and  economic  subjects  to  various  magazines.  The 
most  important  of  these  have  been  collected  in  three  volumes,  "Re- 
flections and  Comments,"  "Problems  of  Modern  Democracy,"  "Un- 
foreseen Tendencies  of  Democracy."  It  is  from  the  opening  essay  of 
the  second  that  the  following  selection  is  taken. 

Wendell  Phillips  Garrison,  his  associate,  said  of  him:  "As  no 
American  could  have  written  Bryce's  'American  Commonwealth'  or 
Goldwin  Smith's  'History  of  the  United  States,'  so  it  may  be  doubted 
if  any  native  of  this  country  could  have  erected  the  standard  of 
political  independence  which  Mr.  Godkin  set  up  in  The  Nation  and 
maintained  in  The  Evening  Post.  He  did  this,  however,  not  as  a 
foreigner,  but  as  an  American  to  the  core.  A  utilitarian  of  the 
school  of  Bentham,  an  economist  of  the  school  of  John  Stuart  Mill, 
an  English  Liberal  to  whom  America,  with  all  its  flagrant  incon- 
sistency of  slaveholding,  was  still  the  hope  of  universal  democracy, 
"he  cast  in  his  lot  with  us,  became  a  naturalized  citizen,  took  an 
American  wife — gave  every  pledge  to  the  land  of  his  adoption  ex- 
cept that  of  being  a  servile  follower  of  party."  Brilliant,  thought- 
ful, questioning,  he  was  keenly  sensible  of  the  many  evil  tendencies 
in  modern  democracy;  yet  with  philosophic  insight  he  rejected  the 
unsound  comparisons  drawn  by  many  political  thinkers  between 
ancient  aristocratic  democracies  and  modern  democracy,  which  he 
viewed  as  a  new  experiment  and  therefore  to  be  tested  by  new 
principles  and  new  conditions. 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  45 


AN    IMMIGRANT'S    FAITH    IN    DEMOCRACY* 

If,  indeed,  the  defects  which  foreign  observers  see,  and 
many  of  which  Americans  acknowledge  and  deplore,  in  the 
politics  and  society  of  the  United  States  were  fairly  charge- 
able to  democracy, — if  "the  principle  of  equality"  were  neces- 
sarily fatal  to  excellence  in  the  arts,  to  finish  in  literature, 
to  simplicity  and  force  in  oratory,  to  fruitful  exploration  in 
the  fields  of  science,  to  statesmanship  in  the  government,  to 
discipline  in  the  army,  to  grace  and  dignity  in  social  inter- 
course, to  subordination  to  lawful  authority,  and  to  self- 
restraint  in  the  various  relations  of  life, — the  future  of  the 
world  would  be  such  as  no  friend  of  the  race  would  wish  to 
contemplate;  for  the  spread  of  democracy  is  on  all  sides 
acknowledged  to  be  irresistible.  Even  those  who  watch  its 
advance  with  most  fear  and  foreboding  confess  that  most 
civilized  nations  must  erelong  succumb  to  its  sway.  Its 
progress  in  some  countries  may  be  slower  than  in  others,  but 
it  is  constant  in  all;  and  it  is  accelerated  by  two  powerful 
agencies, — the  Christian  religion  and  the  study  of  political 
economy. 

The  Christian  doctrine  that  men,  however  unequal  in  v 
their  condition  or  in  their  gifts  on  earth,  are  of  equal  value 
in  the  eyes  of  their  Creator,  and  are  entitled  to  respect  and 
consideration,  if  for  no  other  reason,  for  the  simple  one  that 
they  are  human  souls,  long  as  it  has  been  preached,  has, 
strange  to  say,  only  very  lately  begun  to  exercise  any  per- 
ceptible influence  on  politics.  It  led  a  troubled  and  pre- 
carious life  for  nearly  eighteen  hundred  years  in  conven- 
ticles and  debating  clubs,  in  the  romance  of  poets,  in  the 
dreams  of  philosophers  and  the  schemes  of  philanthropists. 
But  it  is  now  found  in  the  cabinets  of  kings  and  states- 
men, on  the  floor  of  parliament  houses,  and  in  the  most  se- 
cret of  diplomatic  conferences.     It  gives  shape  and  founda- 

•From  "Problems  of  Modern  Democracy."  Copyright,  1896,  by 
Charles  Scribner's  Sons.     By  permission  of  the  publishers. 


46  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN   THE   WRITINGS 

tion  to  nearly  every  great  social  reform,  and  its  voice  is  heard 
above  the  roar  of  every  revolution. 

And  it  derives  invaluable  aid  in  keeping  its  place  and  ex- 
tending its  influence  in  national  councils  from  the  rapid 
spread  of  the  study  of  political  economy,  a  science  which  is 
based  on  the  assumption  that  men  are  free  and  independent. 
There  is  hardly  one  of  its  principles  which  is  applicable  to 
any  state  of  society  in  which  each  individual  is  not  master  of 
his  own  actions  and  sole  guardian  of  his  own  welfare.  In  a 
community  in  which  the  relations  of  its  members  are  regu- 
lated by  status  and  not  by  contract,  it  has  no  place  and  no 
value.  The  natural  result  of  the  study  and  discussion  which 
the  ablest  thinkers  have  expended  on  it  during  the  last 
eighty  years  has  been  to  place  before  the  civilized  world  in 
the  strongest  light  the  prodigious  impulse  which  is  given  to 
human  energy  and  forethought  and  industry,  and  the  great 
gain  to  society  at  large,  by  the  recognition  in  legislation  of 
the  capacity,  as  well  as  of  the  right,  of  each  human  being 
to  seek  his  own  happiness  in  his  own  way.  Of  course  no 
political  system  in  which  this  principle  has  a  place  can  long 
avoid  conceding  to  all  who  live  under  it  equality  before  the 
law ;  and  from  equality  before  the  law  to  the  possession  of  an 
equal  share  in  the  making  of  the  laws,  there  is,  as  every- 
body must  see  who  is  familiar  with  modern  history,  but  a 
very  short  step. 

If  this  spread  of  democracy,  however,  was  sure,  as  its  en- 
emies maintain,  to  render  great  attainments  and  great  ex- 
cellence impossible  or  rare,  to  make  literary  men  slovenly 
and  inaccurate  and  tasteless,  artists  mediocre,  professors  of 
science  dull  and  unenterprising,  and  statesmen  conscience- 
less and  ignorant,  it  would  threaten  civilization  with  such 
danger  that  no  friend  of  progress  could  wish  to  see  it.  But 
it  is  difficult  to  discover  on  what  it  is,  either  in  history  or 
human  nature,  that  this  apprehension  is  founded.  M.  de 
Tocqueville  and  all  his  followers  take  it  for  granted  that  the 
great  incentive  to  excellence,  in  all  countries  in  which  ex- 
cellence is  found,  is  the  patronage  and  encouragement  of  an 
aristocracy;  that  democracy  is  generally  content  with  medi- 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  47 

ocrity.  But  where  is  the  proof  of  this?  The  incentive  to 
exertion  which  is  widest,  most  constant,  and  most  powerful 
in  its  operation  in  all  civilized  countries,  is  the  desire  of 
distinction ;  and  this  may  be  composed  either  of  love  of  fame 
or  love  of  wealth,  or  of  both.  In  literary  and  artistic  and 
scientific  pursuits,  sometimes  the  strongest  influence  is  ex- 
erted by  a  love  of  the  subject.  But  it  may  be  safely  said  that 
no  man  has  ever  yet  labored  in  any  of  the  higher  callings  to 
whom  the  applause  and  appreciation  of  his  fellows  was  not 
one  of  the  sweetest  rewards  of  his  exertions.  There  is  prob- 
ably not  a  masterpiece  in  existence,  either  in  literature  or  in 
art,  probably  few  discoveries  in  science  have  ever  been  made, 
which  we  do  not  owe  in  a  large  measure  to  the  love  of  dis- 
tinction. Who  paints  pictures,  or  has  ever  painted  them, 
that  they  may  delight  no  eye  but  his  own?  Who  writes 
books  for  the  mere  pleasure  of  seeing  his  thoughts  on  paper? 
Who  discovers  or  invents,  and  is  willing,  provided  the 
world  is  the  better  of  his  discoveries  or  inventions,  that  an- 
other should  enjoy  the  honor?  Fame  has,  in  short,  been  in 
all  ages  and  in  all  countries  recognized  as  one  of  the  strong- 
est springs  of  human  action — 

"The  spur  that   doth   the  clear   spirit   raise 
To  scorn  delight  and  live  laborious  days, — 

sweetening  toil,  robbing  danger  and  poverty  and  even  death 
itself  of  their  terrors. 

What  is  there,  we  would  ask,  in  the  nature  of  democratic 
institutions,  that  should  render  this  great  spring  of  action 
powerless,  that  should  deprive  glory  of  all  radiance,  and  put 
ambition  to  sleep?  Is  it  not  notorious,  on  the  contrary, 
that  one  of  the  most  marked  peculiarities  of  democratic  soci- 
ety, or  of  a  society  drifting  toward  democracy,  is  the  fire  of 
competition  which  rages  in  it,  the  fevered  anxiety  which 
possesses  all  its  members  to  rise  above  the  dead  level  to 
which  the  law  is  ever  seeking  to  confine  them,  and  by  some 
brilliant  stroke  become  something  higher  and  more  remark- 
able than  their  fellows?    The  secret  of  that  great  restless- 


\ 


48  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN    THE   WRITINGS 

ness,  which  is  one  of  the  most  disagreeable  accompaniments 
of  life  in  democratic  countries,  is  in  fact  due  to  the  eagerness 
of  everybody  to  grasp  the  prizes  of  which  in  aristocratic 
countries  only  the  few  have  much  chance.  And  in  no  other 
society  is  success  more  worshipped,  is  distinction  of  any  kind 
more  widely  flattered  and  caressed.  Where  is  the  successful 
author,  or  artist,  or  discoverer,  the  subject  of  greater  homage 
than  in  France  or  America?  And  yet  in  both  the  principle 
of  equality  reigns  supreme;  and  his  advancement  in  the 
social  scale  has  gone  on  pari  passu  in  every  country  with  the 
spread  of  democratic  ideas  and  manners.  Grub  Street  was 
the  author's  retreat  in  the  aristocratic  age;  in  this  demo- 
cratic one,  he  is  welcome  at  the  King's  table,  and  sits  at  the 
national  council  board.  In  democratic  societies,  in  fact,  ex- 
cellence is  the  first  title  to  distinction;  in  aristocratic  ones, 
there  are  two  or  three  others  which  are  far  stronger,  and 
which  must  be  stronger,  or  aristocracy  could  not  exist.  The 
moment  you  acknowledge  that  the  highest  social  position 
ought  to  be  the  reward  of  the  man  who  has  the  most  talent, 
you  make  aristocratic  institutions  impossible.  But  to  make 
the  thirst  for  distinction  lose  its  power  over  the  human  heart, 
you  must  do  something  more  than  establish  equality  of  condi- 
tions; you  must  recast  human  nature  itself.  .  .  . 

There  are  some,  however,  who,  while  acknowledging  that 
the  love  of  distinction  will  retain  its  force  under  every  form 
of  social  or  political  organization,  yet  maintain  that  to  excel 
in  the  arts,  science,  or  literature  requires  leisure,  and  the  pos- 
session of  leisure  implies  the  possession  of  fortune. v  This  men 
in  a  democratic  society  cannot  have,  because  the  absence  of 
great  hereditary  wealth  is  necessary  to  the  perpetuation  of 
democracy.  Every  man,  or  nearly  every  man,  must  toil  for  a 
living;  and  therefore  it  becomes  impossible  for  him  to  gratify 
the  thirst  for  distinction,  let  him  feel  it  ever  so  strongly.  The 
attention  he  can  give  to  literature  or  art  or  science  must  be 
too  desultory  and  hasty,  his  mental  training  too  defective,  to 
allow  him  to  work  out  valuable  results  or  conduct  important 
researches.  To  achieve  great  things  in  these  fields,  it  is  said 
and  insinuated,  men  must  be  elevated,  by  the  possession  of 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  49 

fortune,  above  the  vulgar,  petty  cares  of  life;  their  material 
wants  must  be  provided  for  before  they  concentrate  their 
thoughts  with  the  requisite  intensity  on  the  task  before  them. 
Therefore  it  is  to  aristocracy  we  must  look  for  any  great  ad- 
vance in  these  pursuits. 

The  history  of  literature  and  art  and  philosophy  is,  how- 
ever, very  far  from  lending  confirmation  to  this  opinion.  If 
it  teaches  us  anything,  it  teaches  us  that  the  possession  of 
leisure,  far  from  having  helped  men  in  the  pursuit  of  knowl- 
edge, seems  to  have  impeded  them.  Those  who  have  pur- 
sued it  most  successfully  are  all  but  invariably  those  who 
have  pursued  it  under  difficulties.  The  possession  of  great 
wealth  no  doubt  gives  facilities  for  study  and  cultivation 
which  the  mass  of  mankind  do  not  possess;  but  it  at  the 
same  time  exerts  an  influence  on  the  character  which,  in  a 
vast  majority  of  cases,  renders  the  owner  unwilling  to  avail 
himself  of  them.  We  owe  to  the  Roman  aristocracy  the 
great  fabric  of  Roman  jurisprudence;  but,  since  their  time, 
what  has  any  aristocracy  done  for  art  and  literature,  or  law? 
They  have  for  over  a  thousand  years  been  in  possession  of 
nearly  the  whole  resources  of  every  country  in  Europe.  They 
have  had  its  wealth,  its  libraries,  its  archives,  its  teachers,  at 
their  disposal;  and  yet  was  there  ever  a  more  pitiful  record 
than  the  list  of  "Royal  and  Noble  Authors."  One  can  hardly 
help  being  astonished,  too,  at  the  smallness  and  paltriness  of 
the  legacies  which  the  aristocracy  of  the  aristocratic  age  has 
bequeathed  to  this  democratic  age  which  is  succeeding  it.  It 
has,  indeed,  handed  down  to  us  many  glorious  traditions, 
many  noble  and  inspiring  examples  of  courage  and  fortitude 
and  generosity.  The  democratic  world  would  certainly  be 
worse  off  than  it  is  if  it  never  heard  of  the  Cid,  or  Bayard, 
or  Du  Guesclin,  of  Montrose,  or  Hampden,  or  Russell.  But 
what  has  it  left  behind  it  for  which  the  lover  of  art  may  be 
thankful,  by  which  literature  has  been  made  richer,  philoso- 
phy more  potent  or  more  fruitful?  The  painting  and  sculp- 
ture of  modern  Europe  owe  not  only  their  glory,  but  their 
very  existence,  to  the  labors  of  poor  and  obscure  men.  The 
great  architectural  monuments  by  which  its  soil  is  covered 


v/ 


50  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN    THE   WRITINGS 

were  hardly  any  of  them  the  product  of  aristocratic  feeling 
or  liberality.  If  we  except  a  few  palaces  and  a  few  for- 
tresses, we  owe  nearly  all  of  them  to  the  labor  or  the  genius 
or  the  piety  of  the  democratic  cities  which  grew  up  in  the 
midst  of  feudalism.  If  we  take  away  the  sum  total  of  the 
monuments  of  Continental  art  all  that  was  created  by  the 
Italian  republics,  the  commercial  towns  of  Germany  and 
Flanders,  and  the  communes  of  France,  and  by  the  unaided 
efforts  of  the  illustrious  obscure,  the  remainder  would  form  a 
result  poor  and  pitiful  indeed.  We  may  say  much  the  same 
thing  of  every  great  work  in  literature,  and  every  great  dis- 
covery in  science.  Few  of  them  have  been  produced  by  men 
of  leisure,  nearly  all  by  those  whose  life  was  a  long  struggle 
to  escape  from  the  vulgarest  and  most  sordid  cares.  And 
what  is  perhaps  most  remarkable  of  all  is,  that  the  Catholic 
Church,  the  greatest  triumph  of  organizing  genius,  the  most 
impressive  example  of  the  power  of  combination  and  of  dis- 
cipline which  the  world  has  ever  seen,  was  built  up  and  has 
been  maintained  by  the  labors  of  men  drawn  from  the  hum- 
blest ranks  of  society. 

Aristocracy  applied  itself  exclusively  for  ages  to  the  pro- 
fession of  arms.  If  there  was  anything  at  which  it  might 
have  seemed  hopeless  for  democracy  to  compete  with  it,  it 
was  in  the  raising,  framing  and  handling  of  armies.  But 
the  very  first  time  that  a  democratic  society  found  itself  com- 
pelled to  wage  war  in  defence  of  its  own  ideas,  it  displayed 
a  force,  an  originality,  a  vigor  and  rapidity  of  conception,  in 
this,  to  it,  new  pursuit,  which  speedily  laid  Europe  at  its 
feet.  And  the  great  master  of  the  art  of  war,  be  it  ever 
remembered,  was  born  in  obscurity  and  bred  in  psverty. 

Nor,  long  as  men  of  leisure  have  devoted  themselves  to 
the  art  of  government,  have  they  made  any  contributions 
worth  mentioning  to  political  science.  They  have  displayed, 
indeed,  consummate  skill  and  tenacity  in  pursuing  any  line 
of  policy  on  which  they  have  once  deliberately  fixed ;  but  all 
the  great  political  reforms  have  been,  though  often  carried 
into  effect  by  aristocracies,  conceived,  agitated,  and  forced  on 
the  acceptance  of  the  government  by  the  middle  and  lower 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  5 1 

classes.  The  idea  of  equality  before  the  law  was  originated 
in  France  by  literary  men.  In  England,  the  slave-trade  was 
abolished  by  the  labors  of  the  middle  classes.  The  measure 
met  with  the  most  vigorous  opposition  in  the  House  of  Lords. 
The  emancipation  of  the  negroes,  Catholic  emancipation, 
Parliamentary  reform,  law  reform,  especially  the  reform  in 
the  criminal  law,  free  trade,  and,  in  fact,  nearly  every 
change  which  has  had  for  its  object  the  increase  of  national 
happiness  and  prosperity,  has  been  conceived  by  men  of  low 
degree,  and  discussed  and  forced  on  the  upper  classes  by  men 
busy  about  many  other  things. 

We  are,  however,  very  far  from  believing  that  democratic 
society  has  no  dangers  or  defects.  What  we  have  been  en- 
deavoring to  show  is  that  the  inquiry  into  their  nature  and 
number  has  been  greatly  impeded  by  the  natural  disposition 
of  foreign  observers  to  take  the  United  States  as  a  fair 
specimen  of  what  democracy  is  under  the  most  favorable  cir- 
cumstances. The  enormous  extent  of  unoccupied  land  at 
our  disposal,  which  raises  every  man  in  the  community 
above  want,  by  affording  a  ready  outlet  for  surplus  popula- 
tion, is  constantly  spoken  of  as  a  condition  wholly  favorable 
to  the  democratic  experiment, — more  favorable  than  could 
possibly  offer  itself  elsewhere.  In  so  far  as  it  contributes  to 
the  general  happiness  and  comfort,  it  no  doubt  makes  the 
work  of  government  easy;  but  what  we  think  no  political 
philosopher  ought  to  forget  is  that  it  also  offers  serious  ob- 
stacles to  the  settlement  of  a  new  society  on  a  firm  basis, 
and  produces  a  certain  appearance  of  confusion  and  insta- 
bility, both  in  manners  and  ideas,  which  unfit  it  to  furnish  a 
basis  for  any  inductions  of  much  value  as  to  the  tendencies 
to  defects  either  of  an  equality  of  conditions  or  of  demo- 
cratic institutions. 


52  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN    THE   WRITINGS 


JOHN    BOYLE    O'REILLY 

The  extremely  romantic  life  of  John  Boyle  O'Reilly  began  on  June 
28th,  1844,  at  Dowth  Castle,  near  the  town  of  Drogheda  in  Ireland. 
His  chivalrous  nature  and  passionate  love  of  country  and  of  liberty 
were  stimulated  by  the  traditions  and  beauty  of  the  surroundings 
and  by  the  atmosphere  of  legend  and  story  in  which  he  was  brought 
up  by  his  schoolmaster  father  and  clever  and  gifted  mother.  As  a 
young  man  he  was  employed  as  a  compositor  in  a  printing  office  in 
Ireland  and  later  at  Preston  in  Lancashire.  In  consequence  of  his 
connection  with  the  Fenian  movement  he  was  banished  to  Australia, 
whence  he  escaped  to  America  in  1869,  settling  in  Boston,  where  his 
ability  as  poet,  journalist  and  orator  was  quickly  recognized. 
Maurice  Francis  Egan  has  said  of  him:  "In  the  United  States, 
after  adventures  by  sea  and  land,  and  tortures  and  suffering  borne 
with  a  heroism  that  was  both  Greek  and  Christian,  he  found  the 
spirit  of  freedom  in  concrete  form.  Our  country  satisfied  his  aspira- 
tions for  liberty;  he  loved  Ireland  not  less,  but  America  more;  he 
was  exiled  from  the  land  of  his  birth,  yet  he  found  ample  consola- 
tion in  the  country  he  had  chosen." 

The  life  of  the  poet  by  James  Jeffrey  Roche,  together  with  his 
complete  poems  and  speeches,  edited  by  Mrs.  O'Reilly,  was  published 
by  Cassell  in  1891.  A  volume  of  selected  poems  was  published  by 
Kenedy  in  1913. 


THE   EXILE   OF   THE    GAEL 

"What  have  ye  brought  to  our  Nation-building,  Sons  of  the  Gael  ? 
What  is  your  burden  or  guerdon  from  old  Innisfail  ?" 

"No  treasure  we  bring  from  Erin — nor  bring  we  shame  nor  guilt! 
The  sword  we  hold  may  be  broken,  but  we  have  not  dropped  the 

hilt! 
The  wreath  we  bear  to  Columbia  is  twisted  of  thorns,  not  bays, 
And  the  songs  we  sing  are  saddened  by  thoughts  of  desolate  days. 
But  the  hearts  we  bring  for  Freedom  are  washed  in  the  surge  of 

tears, 
And  we  claim  our  right  by  a  People's  fight  outliving  a  thousand 

years!" 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  53 

"What  bring  ye  else  to  the  Building?" 

"Oh,  willing  hands  to  toil; 
Strong  natures  tuned  to  the  harvest-song  and  bound  to  the  kindly 

soil ; 
Bold  pioneers  for  the  wilderness,  defenders  in  the  field, — 
The  sons  of  a  race  of  soldiers  who  never  learned  to  yield. 
Young  hearts  with  duty  brimming — as  faith  makes  sweet  the  due; 
Their  truth  to  me  their  witness  they  cannot  be  false  to  you!" 

"What  send  ye  else,  old  Mother,  to  raise  our  mighty  wall  ? 
For  we  must  build  against  Kings  and  Wrongs  a  fortress  never  to 
fall." 

"I  send  you  in  cradle  and  bosom,  wise  brain  and  eloquent  tongue, 
Whose  crowns  should   engild   my  crowning,   whose  songs  for  me 

should  be  sung. 
Oh,  flowers  unblown,  from  lonely  fields,  my  daughters  with  hearts 

aglow, 
With  pulses  warm  with  sympathies,  with  bosoms  pure  as  snow, — 
I  smile  through  tears  as  the  clouds  unroll — my  widening  river  that 

runs! 
My  lost  ones  grown  in  radiant  growth — proud  mothers  of  free-born 


"It  is  well,  aye,  well,  old  Erin !    The  sons  you  give  to  me 

Are  symboled  long  in  flag  and  song — your  Sunburst  on  the  Sea. 

All  mine  by  the  chrism  of  Freedom,  still  yours  by  their  love's  belief; 

And  truest  to  me  shall  the  tenderest  be  in  a  suffering  Mother's  grief. 

Their  loss  is  the  change  of  the  wave  to  the  cloud,  of  the  dew  to  the 

river  and  main; 
Their  hope  shall   persist  through  the  sea   and   the  mist,   and  thy 

streams  shall  be  filled  again. 
As  the  smolt  of  the  salmon  go  down  to  the  sea,  and  as  surely  come 

back  to  the  river, 
Their  love  shall  be  yours  while  your  sorrow  endures,  for  God  guard- 

eth  His  right  forever." 


54  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN    THE   WRITINGS 


THE   PILGRIM   FATHERS 

In  every  land  wherever  might  holds  sway 

The  Pilgrims'  leaven  is  at  work  to-day. 

The  Mayflower's  cabin  was  the  chosen  womb 

Of  light  predestined  for  the  nations'  gloom. 

God  grant  that  those  who  tend  the  sacred  flame 

May  worthy  prove  of  their  Forefathers'  name. 

More  light  has  come, — more  dangers,  too,  perplex: 

New  prides,  new  greeds,  our  high  condition  vex. 

The  Fathers  fled  from  feudal  lords  and  made 

A  freehold  state;  may  we  not  retrograde 

To  lucre-lords  and  hierarchs  of  trade. 

May  we,  as  they  did,  teach  in  court  and  school 

There  must  be  classes,  but  no  class  shall  rule: 

The  sea  is  sweet,  and  rots  not  like  the  pool. 

Though  vast  the  token  of  our  future  glory, 

Though  tongue  of  man  hath  not  told  such  a  story, 

Surpassing  Plato's  dream,  More's  phantasy,  still  we 

Have  no  new  principles  to  keep  us  free. 

As  Nature  works  with  changeless  grain  on  grain, 

The  truths  the  Fathers  taught  we  need  again. 

Depart  from  this,  though  we  may  crowd  our  shelves 

With  codes  and  precepts  for  each  lapse  and  flaw, 

And  patch  our  moral  leaks  with  statute  law, 

We  cannot  be  protected  from  ourselves! 

Still  must  we  keep  in  every  stroke  and  vote 

The  law  of  conscience  that  the  Pilgrims  wrote; 

Our  seal  their  secret:    Liberty  can  be; 

The  State  is  freedom  if  the  Toivn  is  free. 

The  death  of  nations  in  their  work  began ; 

They  sowed  the  seed  of  federated  man. 

Dead  nations  were  but  robber-holds,  and  we 

The  first  battalion  of  Humanity! 

All  living  nations,  while  our  eagles  shine, 

One  after  one,  shall  swing  into  our  line; 

Our  freeborn  heritage  shall  be  the  guide 

And  bloodless  order  of  their  regicide; 

The  sea  shall  join,  not  limit;  mountains  stand 

Dividing  farm  from  farm,  not  land  from  land. 

O  People's  Voice!  when  farthest  thrones  shall  hear; 

When  teachers  own ;  when  thoughtful  rabbis  know ; 

When  artist  minds  in  world-wide  symbol  show; 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  53 

When  serfs  and  soldiers  their  mute  faces  raise; 
When  priests  on  grand  cathedral  altars  praise ; 
When  pride  and  arrogance  shall  disappear, 
The  Pilgrims'  Vision  is  accomplished  here! 


LIBERTY   LIGHTING   THE    WORLD* 

Majestic  warder  by  the  nation's  gate, 

Spike-crowned,  flame-armed  like  Agony  or  Glory, 

Holding  the  tablets  of  some  unknown  law, 

With  gesture  eloquent  and  mute  as  Fate, — 

We  stand  about  thy  feet  in  solemn  awe, 

Like  desert-tribes  who  seek  their  sphinx's  story, 

And  question  thee  in  spirit  and  in  speech ; 

What  art  thou  ?    Whence  ?    What  comest  thou  to  teach  ? 

What  vision  hold  those  introverted  eyes 

Of  revolutions  framed  in  centuries? 

Thy  flame — what  threat,  or  guide  for  sacred  way? 

Thy  tablet — what  commandment?    What  Sinai? 

Lo!  as  the  waves  make  murmur  at  thy  base, 

We  watch  the  somber  grandeur  of  thy  face, 

And  ask  thee — what  thou  art. 

I  am  Liberty — God's  daughter!  ^/ 

My  symbols — a  law  and  a  torch; 

Not  a  sword  to  threaten  slaughter, 

Nor  a  flame  to  dazzle  or  scorch ; 

But  a  light  that  the  world  may  see 

And  a  truth  that  shall  make  men  free. 

I  am  the  sister  of  Duty, 
And  I  am  the  sister  of  Faith; 
To-day  adored  for  my  beauty, 
To-morrow  led  forth  to  death. 
I  am  she  whom  ages  prayed  for; 
Heroes  suffered  undismayed  for; 
Whom  the  martyrs  were  betrayed  for! 

•The  poem  is  given  in  the  abridged  form  in  which  it  is  printed  !■ 
the  volume  of  O'Reilly's  selected  poems,  published  by  P.  J.  Kenedy  h 
Sons. 


56  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN    THE    WRITINGS 

I  am  Liberty!     Fame  of  nation  or  praise  of  statute  is  naught  to  me: 
Freedom  is  growth  and  not  creation:  one  man  suffers,  one  man  is 

free. 
One  brain  forges  a  constitution;  but  how  shall  the  million  souls  be 

won? 
Freedom  is  more  than  a  resolution — he  is  not  free  who  is  free  alone. 

Justice  is  mine,  and  it  grows  by  loving,  changing  the  world  like  the 

circling  sun; 
Evil   recedes   from   the   spirit's   proving   as  mist   from   the   hollows 

when  night  is  done. 
Hither,  ye  blind,  from  your  futile  banding;  know  the  rights  and  the 

rights  are  won; 

Wrong  shall  die  with  the  understanding — one  truth  clear  and  the 

work  is  done. 
Nature  is  higher  than  Progress  or  Knowledge,  whose  need  is  ninety 

enslaved  for  ten; 
My  word  shall  stand  against  mart  and  college;   The  planet  belongs 

to  its  living  men! 
And  hither,  ye  weary  ones  and  breathless,  searching  the  seas  for  a 

kindly  shore, 
I  am  Liberty!  patient,  deathless — set  by  love  at  the  nation's  door. 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  57 


AMERICA* 

O  Land  magnanimous,  republican! 

The  last  for  Nationhood,  the  first  for  Man! 

Because  thy  lines  by  Freedom's  hand  were  laid, 

Profound  the  sin  to  change  or  retrograde. 

From  base  to  cresting  let  thy  work  be  new ; 

'Twas  not  by  aping  foreign  ways  it  grew. 

To  struggling  peoples  give  at  least  applause ; 

Let  equities,  not  precedent,  subtend  your  laws; 

Like  rays  from  that  great  Eye  the  altars  show, 

That  fall  triangular,   free  states  should  grow, 

.The  soul  above,  the  brain  and  hand  below. 

Believe  that  strength  lies  not  in  steel  nor  stone; 

That  perils  wait  the  land  whose  heavy  throne, 

Though  ringed  by  swords  and  rich  with  titled  show, 

Is  based  on  fettered  misery  below ; 

That  nations  grow  where  every  class  unites 

For  common  interests  and  common  rights ; 

Where  no  caste  barrier  stays  the  poor  man's  son, 

Till  step  by  step  the  topmost  height  is  won; 

Where  every  hand  subscribes  to  every  rule, 

And  free  as  air  are  voice  and  vote  and  school! 

A  nation's  years  are  centuries.    Let  Art 

Portray  thy  first,  and  Liberty  will  start 

From  every  field  in  Europe  at  the  sight. 

"Why  stand  these  thrones  between  us  and  the  light?" 

Strong  men  will  ask,  "Who  built  these  frontier  towers 

To  bar  out  men  of  kindred  blood  with  ours?" 

Oh,  this  thy  work,  Republic!  this  thy  health. 
To  prove  man's  birthright  to  a  commonwealth ; 
To  teach  the  peoples  to  be  strong  and  wise, 
Till  armies,  nations,  nobles,  royalties, 
Are  laid  at  rest  with  all  their  fears  and  hates; 
Till   Europe's  thirteen  monarchies   are  states, 
Without  a  barrier  and  without  a  throne. 
Of  one  grand  federation  like  our  own ! 

•This  poem,  which  is  here  quoted  in  part  only,  was  read  at  the  re- 
union of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  in  Detroit,  June  14,  1882,  General 
Grant  being  present  on  the  occasion. 


58  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN   THE   WRITINGS 


HANS    MATTSON 

Hans  Mattson  was  the  son  of  an  independent  freeholder  and  suc- 
cessful farmer  of  the  parish  of  Onnestad,  near  the  city  of  Kristian- 
stad,  Sweden.  In  an  unpretending  little  cabin  built  by  his  father 
he  spent  the  first  years  of  his  happy  and  peaceful  childhood.  On 
one  occasion  he  was  taken  by  his  parents  to  see  the  king,  who  was 
to  pass  by  on  the  highway  near  his  home.  In  the  midst  of  the  con- 
fusion he  did  succeed  in  getting  a  glimpse  of  King  Oscar  I.  In 
his  childish  mind  he  had  fancied  that  the  king  and  his  family  and 
all  others  in  authority  were  the  peculiar  and  elect  people  of  the 
Almighty,  but  after  this  event  he  began  to  entertain  serious  doubts 
as  to  the  correctness  of  his  views  on  this  matter. 

After  a  year  and  a  half  in  the  Swedish  army  he  decided  to  leave 
the  service  and  try  his  luck  "in  a  country  where  inherited  names 
and  titles  were  not  the  necessary  conditions  of  success."  He  says: 
"At  that  time  America  was  little  known  in  our  part  of  the  country, 
only  a  few  persons  having  emigrated  from  the  whole  district.  But 
we  knew  that  it  was  a  new  country,  inhabited  by  a  free  and  inde- 
pendent people,  that  it  had  a  liberal  government  and  great  natural 
resources,  and  these  inducements  were  sufficient  for  us." 

From  the  time  of  his  arrival  at  Boston  until  his  final  settling  in 
Minnesota,  his  career  is  but  typical  of  that  of  the  many  sturdy  and 
enterprising  pioneers  of  Scandinavian  origin  who  have  contributed 
so  much  to  the  building  of  the  Northwest.  He  served  as  a  colonel 
in  the  Civil  War,  and  in  1869  was  elected  as  Secretary  of  State  in 
Minnesota.  Later  he  was  Consul  General  of  the  United  States  in 
India. 

The  selection  that  follows  is  taken  from  the  final  chapter  of  his 
"Reminiscences,"  the  English  translation  of  which  was  published  in 
1892. 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  59 

SCANDINAVIAN     CONTRIBUTION     TO 
AMERICAN    NATIONALITY 

It  is  a  great  mistake  which  some  make,  to  think  that  it  is 
only  for  their  brawn  and  muscle  that  the  Northmen  have 
become  a  valuable  acquisition  to  the  American  population; 
on  the  contrary,  they  have  done,  and  are  doing,  as  much  as 
any  other  nationality  within  the  domain  of  mind  and  heart. 
Not  to  speak  of  the  early  discovery  of  America  by  the  Scan- 
dinavians four  hundred  years  before  the  time  of  Columbus, 
they  can  look  back  with  proud  satisfaction  on  the  part  they 
have  taken  in  all  respects  to  make  this  great  republic  what  it 
is  to-day. 

The  early  Swedish  colonists  in  Delaware,  Pennsylvania 
and  New  Jersey  worked  as  hard  for  liberty  and  indepen- 
dence as  the  English  did  in  New  England  and  in  the  South. 
There  were  no  tories  among  them,  and  when  the  Continental 
Congress  stood  wavering  equal  in  the  balance  for  and  against 
the  adoption  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  it  was  a 
Swede,  John  Morton  (Mortenson),  of  the  old  Delaware 
stock,  who  gave  the  casting  vote  of  Pennsylvania  in  favor  of 
the  sacred  document. 

When,  nearly  a  century  later,  the  great  rebellion  burst 
upon  the  land,  a  gallant  descendant  of  the  Swedes,  Gen. 
Robert  Anderson,  met  its  first  shock  at  Fort  Sumter,  and, 
during  the  bitter  struggle  of  four  years  which  followed,  the 
Scandinavian-Americans  were  as  true  and  loyal  to  their 
adopted  country  as  their  native-born  neighbors,  giving  their 
unanimous  support  to  the  cause  of  the  Union  and  fighting 
valiantly  for  it.  Nor  should  it  be  forgotten  that  it  was  the 
Swede,  John  Ericsson,  who,  by  his  inventive  genius,  saved 
the  navy  and  the  great  seaports  of  the  United  States,  and 
that  it  was  another  Swede  by  descent,  Admiral  Dahlgren, 
who  furnished  the  model  for  the  best  guns  of  our  artillery. 
Surely  love  of  freedom,  valor,  genius,  patriotism  and  relig- 
ious fervor  was  not  planted  in  America  by  the  seeds  brought 
over  in  the  Mayflower  alone. 


60  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN    THE   WRITINGS 

Yes,  it  is  verily  true  that  the  Scandinavian  immigrants, 
from  the  early  colonists  of  1638  to  the  present  time,  have 
furnished  strong  hands,  clear  heads  and  loyal  hearts  to  the 
republic.  They  have  caused  the  wilderness  to  blossom  like 
the  rose ;  they  have  planted  schools  and  churches  on  the  hills 
and  in  the  valleys ;  they  have  honestly  and  ably  administered 
the  public  affairs  of  town,  county  and  state;  they  have 
helped  to  make  wise  laws  for  their  respective  common- 
wealths and  in  the  halls  of  Congress;  they  have,  with  honor 
and  ability,  represented  their  adopted  country  abroad;  they 
have  sanctified  the  American  soil  by  their  blood,  shed  in 
freedom's  cause  on  the  battle-fields  of  the  Revolution  and  the 
Civil  War;  and,  though  proud  of  their  Scandinavian  ances- 
try, they  love  America  and  American  institutions  as  deeply 
and  as  truly  as  do  the  descendants  of  the  Pilgrims,  the  starry 
emblem  of  liberty  meaning  as  much  to  them  as  to  any  other 
citizen. 

Therefore,  the  Scandinavian-American  feels  a  certain 
sense  of  ownership  in  the  glorious  heritage  of  American  soil, 
with  its  rivers,  lakes,  mountains,  valleys,  woods  and  prairies, 
and  in  all  its  noble  institutions;  and  he  feels  that  the  bless- 
ings which  he  enjoys  are  not  his  by  favor  or  sufferance,  but 
by  right ; — by  moral  as  well  as  civil  right.  For  he  took  pos- 
session of  the  wilderness,  endured  the  hardships  of  the  pioneer, 
contributed  his  full  share  toward  the  grand  results  accom- 
plished, and  is  in  mind  and  heart  a  true  and  loyal  American 
citizen. 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  6l 


JACOB    RIIS 

Jacob  Riis,  who  may  well  stand  as  a  representative  of  the  best 
that  America  has  received  from  the  Scandinavian  countries,  was 
born  at  Ribe,  Denmark,  May  3,  1849.  He  emigrated  to  the  United 
States  in  1870,  where  he  subsequently  obtained  a  position  as  reporter 
on  The  New  York  Tribune  and  The  Evening  Sun.  It  is  at  the  close 
of  his  well-known  autobiography  that  he  relates  how  he  came  to  a 
realization  that  he  was  indeed  an  American  in  heart  as  well  as  in 
name.    In  words  of  patriotic  fervor  he  says: — 

"I  have  told  the  story  of  the  making  of  an  American.  There  re- 
mains to  tell  how  I  found  out  that  he  was  made  and  finished  at 
last.  It  was  when  I  went  back  to  see  my  mother  once  more  and, 
wandering  about  the  country  of  my  childhood's  memories,  had  come 
to  the  city  of  Elsinore.  There  I  fell  ill  of  a  fever  and  lay  many 
weeks  in  the  house  of  a  friend  upon  the  shore  of  the  beautiful 
Oeresund.  One  day  when  the  fever  had  left  me,  they  rolled  my  bed 
into  a  room  overlooking  the  sea.  The  sunlight  danced  upon  the 
waves,  and  the  distant  mountains  of  Sweden  were  blue  against  the 
horizon.  Ships  passed  under  full  sail  up  and  down  the  great  water- 
way of  the  nations.  But  the  sunshine  and  the  peaceful  day  bore  no 
message  to  me.  I  lay  moodily  picking  at  the  coverlet,  sick  and  dis- 
couraged and  sore — I  hardly  knew  why  myself.  Until  all  at  once 
there  sailed  past,  close  inshore,  a  ship  flying  at  the  top  the  flag  of 
freedom,  blown  out  on  the  breeze  till  every  star  in  it  shone  bright 
and  clear.  That  moment  I  knew.  Gone  were  illness,  discourage- 
ment, and  gloom!  Forgotten  weakness  and  suffering,  the  cautions 
of  doctor  and  nurse.  I  sat  up  in  bed  and  shouted,  laughed  and 
cried  by  turns,  waving  my  handkerchief  to  the  flag  out  there.  They 
thought  I  had  lost  my  head,  but  I  told  them  no,  thank  God !  I  had 
found  it,  and  my  heart,  too,  at  last.  I  knew  then  that  it  was  my 
flag;  that  my  children's  home  was  mine,  indeed;  that  I  also  had 
become  an  American  in  truth.  And  I  thanked  God,  and,  like  unto 
the  man  sick  of  the  palsy,  arose  from  my  bed  and  went  home, 
healed." 

Besides  being  the  author  of  several  books,  such  as  "The  Battle 
with  the  Slum,"  "How  the  Other  Half  Lives,"  and  "The  Children  of 
the  Poor,"  dealing  with  the  life  of  the  people  of  New  York's  East 
Side,  he  was  an  active  and  practical  reformer.  In  the  course  of  his 
struggles  to  ameliorate  the  condition  of  the  poor,  he  met  Theodore 
Roosevelt  and  formed  the  friendship  which  inspired  the  volume 
represented  in  the  following  selection.  Riis  and  Roosevelt  had  much 
in  common.  There  was  in  both  a  great  deal  of  the  old  Anglo-Saxon 
fighting  spirit,  ennobled  by  modern  influences  and  employed  in  de- 


62  THE  AMERICAN   SPIRIT  IN   THE   WRITINGS 

fense  of  right  and  justice.  Their  mutual  and  steadfast  devotion  to 
each  other  resembled  that  of  ancient  liegeman  and  lord.  This  hero- 
worship  is,  after  all,  not  unique  in  our  history.  It  should  be  a  cause 
for  great  pride  that  so  many  of  our  leaders,  of  whom,  of  course, 
Lincoln  is  the  most  striking  example,  by  embodying  the  noblest  and 
the  best  in  American  life,  have  been  the  living  ideal  of  countless 
immigrants. 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  63 


A  YOUNG   MAN'S   HERO:     AN   IMMIGRANT'S 
TRIBUTE   TO   ROOSEVELT 

There  was  never  a  day  that  called  so  loudly  for  such  as  he, 
as  does  this  of  ours.  Not  that  it  is  worse  than  other  days ;  I 
know  it  is  better.  I  find  proof  of  it  in  the  very  fact  that  it 
is  as  if  the  age-long  fight  between  good  and  evil  had  suddenly 
come  to  a  head,  as  if  all  the  questions  of  right,  of  justice,  of 
the  brotherhood,  which  we  had  seen  in  glimpses  before,  and 
dimly,  had  all  at  once  come  out  in  the  open,  craving  solution 
one  and  all.  A  battle  royal,  truly !  A  battle  for  the  man  of 
clean  hands  and  clean  mind,  who  can  think  straight  and  act 
square;  the  man  who  will  stand  for  the  right  "because  it  is 
right" ;  who  can  say,  and  mean  it,  that  "it  is  hard  to  fail,  but 
worse  never  to  have  tried  to  succeed."  A  battle  for  him  who 
strives  for  "that  highest  form  of  success  which  comes,  not 
to  the  man  who  desires  mere  easy  peace,  but  to  him  who 
does  not  shrink  from  danger,  from  hardship  or  from  bitter 
toil,  and  who  out  of  these  wins  the  splendid  ultimate 
triumph."  I  am  but  quoting  his  own  words,  and  never,  I 
think,  did  I  hear  finer  than  those  he  spoke  of  Governor  Taft 
when  he  had  put  by  his  own  preferences  and  gone  to  his  hard 
and  toilsome  task  in  the  Philippines;  for  the  whole  royal, 
fighting  soul  of  the  man  was  in  them. 

"But  he  undertook  it  gladly,"  he  said,  "and  he  is  to  be 
considered  thrice  fortunate;  for  in  this  world  the  one  thing 
supremely  worth  having  is  the  opportunity  coupled  with  the 
capacity  to  do  well  and  worthily  a  piece  of  work  the  doing  of 
which  is  of  vital  consequence  to  the  welfare  of  mankind." 

There  is  his  measure.  Let  now  the  understrappers  sput- 
ter. With  that  for  our  young  men  to  grow  up  to,  we  need 
have  no  fear  for  the  morrow.  Let  it  ask  what  questions  it 
will  of  the  Republic,  it  shall  answer  them,  for  we  shall  have 
men  at  the  oars. 

This  afternoon  the  newspaper  that  came  to  my  desk  con- 
tained a  cable  despatch  which  gave  me  a  glow  at  the  heart 


64  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN    THE   WRITINGS 

such  as  I  have  not  felt  for  a  while.  Just  three  lines;  but 
they  told  that  a  nation's  conscience  was  struggling  victoriously 
through  hate  and  foul  play  and  treason:  Captain  Dreyfus 
was  to  get  a  fair  trial.  Justice  was  to  be  done  at  last  to  a 
once  despised  Jew  whose  wrongs  had  held  the  civilized  world 
upon  the  rack ;  and  the  world  was  made  happy.  Say  now  it 
does  not  move!  It  does,  where  there  are  men  to  move  it, — 
I  said  it  before:  men  who  believe  in  the  right  and  are  will- 
ing to  fight  for  it.  When  the  children  of  poverty  and  want 
came  to  Mulberry  Street  for  justice,  and  I  knew  they  came 
because  Roosevelt  had  been  there,  I  saw  in  that  what  the 
resolute,  courageous,  unyielding  determination  of  one  man  to 
see  right  done  in  his  own  time  could  accomplish.  I  have 
watched  him  since  in  the  Navy  Department,  in  camp,  as  Gov- 
ernor, in  the  White  House,  and  more  and  more  I  have 
made  out  his  message  as  being  to  the  young  men  of  our  day, 
himself  the  youngest  of  our  Presidents.  I  know  it  is  so,  lor 
when  I  speak  to  the  young  about  him,  I  see  their  eyes  kindle, 
and  their  handshake  tells  me  that  they  want  to  be  like  him, 
and  are  going  to  try.  And  then  I  feel  that  I,  too,  have  done 
something  worth  doing  for  my  people.  For,  whether  for 
good  or  for  evil,  we  all  leave  our  mark  upon  our  day,  and 
his  is  that  of  a  clean,  strong  man  who  fights  for  the  right 
and  wins. 

Now,  then,  a  word  to  these  young  men  who,  all  over  our 
broad  land,  are  striving  up  toward  the  standard  he  sets,  for 
he  is  their  hero  by  right,  as  he  is  mine.  Do  not  be  afraid  to 
own  it.  The  struggle  to  which  you  are  born,  and  in  which 
you  are  bound  to  take  a  hand  if  you  would  be  men  in  more 
than  name,  is  the  struggle  between  the  ideal  and  the  husk; 
for  life  without  ideals  is  like  the  world  without  the  hope  of 
heaven,  an  empty,  meaningless  husk.  It  is  your  business  to 
read  its  meaning  into  it  by  making  the  ideals  real.  The  mate- 
rial things  of  life  are  good  in  their  day,  but  they  pass  away; 
the  moral  remain  to  bear  witness  that  the  high  hopes  of 
youth  are  not  mere  phantasms.  Theodore  Roosevelt  lives 
his  ideals;  therefore  you  can  trust  them.  Here  they  are  in 
working  shape:     "Face  the  facts  as  you  find  them;  strive 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  65 

steadily  for  the  best."  "Be  never  content  with  less  than  the 
possible  best,  and  never  throw  away  the  possible  best  because 
it  is  not  the  ideal  best."  Maxims,  those,  for  the  young  man 
who  wants  to  make  the  most  of  himself  and  his  time.  Hap- 
pily for  the  world,  the  young  man  who  does  not  is  rare. 


66  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN   THE   WRITINGS 


JACOB    VAN   DER   ZEE 

"The  Hollanders  of  Iowa,"  by  Jacob  Van  der  Zee,  was  published 
at  Iowa  City  in  19 12  by  the  State  Historical  Society  of  Iowa.  The 
following  facts  regarding  the  author  and  his  book  are  given  in  the 
introduction  of  the  editor,  Mr.  Benjamin  F.  Shambaugh: — 

"The  author  of  this  volume  on  'The  Hollanders  of  Iowa'  was 
admirably  fitted  for  the  task.  Born  of  Dutch  parents  in  The 
Netherlands  and  reared  among  kinsfolk  in  Iowa,  he  has  been  a  part 
of  the  life  which  is  portrayed  in  these  pages.  At  the  same  time  Mr. 
Van  der  Zee's  education  at  The  State  University  of  Iowa,  his  three 
years'  residence  at  Oxford  as  a  Rhodes  scholar,  and  his  research 
work  in  The  State  Historical  Society  of  Iowa  have  made  it  possible 
for  him  to  study  the  Hollanders  objectively  as  well  as  subjectively. 
Accordingly,  his  book  is  in  no  respect  an  overdrawn,  eulogistic  ac- 
count of  the  Dutch  people. 

"The  history  of  the  Hollanders  of  Iowa  is  not  wholly  provincial: 
it  suggests  much  that  is  typical  in  the  development  of  Iowa  and  in 
the  larger  history  of  the  West:  it  is  'a  story  of  the  stubborn  and  un- 
yielding fight  of  men  and  women  who  overcame  the  obstacles  of  a 
new  country  and  handed  down  to  their  descendants  thriving  farms 
and  homes  of  peace  and  plenty.'  " 

The  selection  here  given  comprises  chapter  four  of  the  book. 


OF  AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  67 

WHY    DUTCH    EMIGRANTS   TURNED   TO 
AMERICA 

Such  was  the  condition  of  things  in  The  Netherlands  that 
thousands  of  people  lived  from  hand  to  mouth,  the  prey  of 
poverty  and  hunger,  stupefied  by  the  hopelessness  of  securing 
the  necessities  of  life,  and  barely  enabled  through  the  gifts  of 
the  well-to-do  to  drag  out  their  wretched  lives.  At  the  same 
time  many  of  these  unfortunate  persons  were  hopeful  and 
eager  to  find  a  place  where  they  might  obtain  a  livelihood, 
lead  quiet  lives  of  honesty  and  godliness,  and  educate  their 
children  in  the  principles  of  religion  without  let  or  hindrance. 
The  leaders  of  the  Separatists  looked  forward  to  a  life  of 
freedom  in  a  land  where  man  would  not  have  to  wait  for 
work,  but  where  work  awaited  man,  where  people  would  not 
rub  elbows  by  reason  of  the  density  of  population,  and 
where  God's  creation  would  welcome  the  coming  of  man. 

When  social  forces  such  as  these,  mostly  beyond  human 
control,  began  to  operate  with  increasing  power,  the  Dutch 
people  were  not  slow  to  recognize  the  truth  that  emigration 
was  absolutely  necessary.  The  seriousness  of  the  situation 
dawned  upon  all  thinking  men, — especially  upon  state  offi- 
cials, who  feared  that  unless  the  stream  of  emigration  could 
be  directed  toward  the  Dutch  colonies,  their  country  would 
suffer  an  enormous  dram  of  capital  and  human  lives.  Accord- 
ingly the  attention  of  prospective  emigrants  was  called  to  the 
Dutch  East  Indies, — chiefly  to  the  advantages  of  the  rich 
island  of  Java,  "that  paradise  of  the  world,  the  pearl  in  Hol- 
land's crown." 

The  religion  of  the  Dissenters,  however,  was  responsible 
for  turning  the  balance  in  favor  of  some  other  land.  To 
them  Java  was  a  closed  door.  Beside  the  fear  of  an  unhealth- 
ful  climate  towered  the  certainty  of  legislation  hostile  to  their 
Christian  principles  and  ideals.  Moreover,  could  poor  men 
afford  the  expense  of  transportation  thither,  and  could  they 
feel  assured  of  getting  land  or  work  in  Java  ?  State  officials, 
men  of  learning,  and  men  of  business  from  several  parts  of 


68  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN    THE   WRITINGS 

the  country  were  summoned  to  an  important  conference 
at  Amsterdam  to  discuss  the  whole  emigration  move- 
ment. The  Separatist  leaders  were  asked  why  they 
should  not  remain  Netherlanders  under  the  House  of  Orange 
by  removing  to  the  colonies  just  as  the  people  of  the  British 
Isles  found  homes  in  the  English  colonies.  Two  Separatist 
ministers  appealed  to  the  government  to  direct  the  flood  of 
emigration  toward  Java  by  promises  of  civil  and  religious 
liberty.  But  the  attempt  to  secure  a  free  Christian  colony  in 
Java  produced  only  idle  expectations. 

Then  it  was  that  the  people  turned  their  eyes  away  from 
the  East  toward  the  United  States  of  North  America, — a 
land  of  freedom  and  rich  blessings,  where  they  hoped  to  find 
in  its  unsettled  interior  some  spot  adaptable  to  agriculture, 
and  thus  rescue  themselves  from  the  miseries  of  a  decadent 
state.  To  the  discontented,  ambitious  Hollander  was  pre- 
sented the  picture  of  a  real  land  of  promise,  where  all  things 
would  smile  at  him  and  be  prepared,  as  it  were,  to  aid  him. 
It  was  said  that  "after  an  ocean  passage  of  trifling  expense 
the  Netherlander  may  find  work  to  do  as  soon  as  he  sets  foot 
on  shore;  he  may  buy  land  for  a  few  florins  per  acre;  and 
feel  secure  and  free  among  a  people  of  Dutch,  German  and 
English  birth,  who  will  rejoice  to  see  him  come  to  increase 
the  nation's  wealth."  Asserting  that  they  could  vouch  for 
the  truthfulness  of  this  picture,  as  based  on  the  positive  assur- 
ances and  experiences  of  friends  already  in  America,  the  Sep- 
aratist clergyman-pamphleteers  openly  declared  that  they 
would  not  hesitate  to  rob  Holland  of  her  best  citizens  by 
helping  them  on  their  way  to  America. 

Of  the  people  and  government  of  the  United  States, 
Scholte,  who  was  destined  to  lead  hundreds  of  his  country- 
men to  the  State  of  Iowa,  at  an  early  date  cherished  a  highly 
favorable  opinion,  which  he  expressed  as  follows : — 

"I  am  convinced  that  a  settlement  in  some  healthful  region 
there  will  have,  by  the  ordinary  blessing  of  God,  excellent 
temporal  and  moral  results,  especially  for  the  rising  genera- 
tion. .  .  .  Should  it  then  excite  much  wonder  that  I  have 
firmly  resolved  to  leave  The  Netherlands  and  together  with 


OF  AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  69 

so  many  Christian  relatives  adopt  the  United  States  as  a  new 
fatherland  ? 

"There  I  shall  certainly  meet  with  the  same  wickedness 
which  troubles  me  here;  yet  I  shall  find  also  opportunity  to 
work.  There  I  shall  certainly  find  the  same,  if  not  stiH 
greater,  evidence  of  unbelief  and  superstitution ;  but  I  shall 
also  find  a  constitutional  provision  which  does  not  bind  my 
hands  in  the  use  of  the  Sword  of  the  Spirit,  which  is  the 
Word  of  God ;  there  I  can  fight  for  what  I  believe  without 
being  disobedient  to  the  magistrates  and  authorities  ordained 
by  God.  There  I  shall  find  among  men  the  same  zeal  to  ob- 
tain this  world's  goods ;  but  1  shall  not  find  the  same  impulse 
to  get  the  better  of  one  another,  for  competition  is  open  to 
all;  I  shall  not  find  the  same  desire  to  reduce  the  wages  of 
labor,  nor  the  same  inducement  to  avoid  taxation,  nor  the 
same  peevishness  and  groaning  about  the  burden  of  taxation. 

"There  I  shall  find  no  Minister  of  Public  Worship,  for  the 
separation  of  Church  and  State  is  a  fact.  There  I  shall  not 
need  to  contribute  to  the  support  of  pastors  whose  teachings  I 
abhor.  I  shall  find  no  school  commissions  nor  school  super- 
visors who  prohibit  the  use  of  the  Bible  in  schools  and  hinder 
the  organization  of  special  schools,  for  education  is  really 
free.  I  shall  find  there  the  descendants  of  earlier  inhabitants 
of  Holland,  among  whom  the  piety  of  our  forefathers  still 
lives,  and  who  are  now  prepared  to  give  advice  and  aid  to 
Hollanders  who  are  forced  to  come  to  them." 

Scholte,  however,  never  claimed  to  be  a  refugee  from  the 
oppression  of  the  Old  World.  He  left  Europe  because  the 
social,  religious,  and  political  condition  of  his  native  country 
was  such  that,  according  to  his  conviction,  he  could  not  with 
any  reasonable  hope  of  success  work  for  the  actual  benefit  of 
honest  and  industrious  fellow-men.  Very  many  members  of 
Scholte's  emigrant  association  felt  certain  that  they  and  their 
children  would  sink  from  the  middle  class  and  end  their  lives 
as  paupers,  if  they  remained  in  Holland. 

Later  emigration  to  America  was  in  no  small  degree  due  to 
a  cause  which  has  always  operated  in  inducing  people  to 
abandon  their  European  homes.    After  a  period  of  residence 


70  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN    THE   WRITINGS 

in  America,  Hollanders,  elated  by  reason  of  their  prosperity 
and  general  change  of  fortune,  very  naturally  reported  their 
delight  to  friends  and  relatives  in  the  fatherland,  strongly 
urging  them  to  come  and  share  their  good  luck  instead  of 
suffering  from  want  in  Holland.  They  wrote  of  higher 
wages,  fertile  soil,  cheapness  of  the  necessities  of  life,  abund- 
ance of  cheap  land,  and  many  other  advantages.  If  one's 
wages  for  a  day's  work  in  America  equalled  a  week's  earn- 
ings in  Holland,  surely  it  was  worth  while  to  leave  that  un- 
fortunate country.  Such  favorable  reports  as  these  were 
largely  instrumental  in  turning  the  attention  of  Hollanders 
to  the  New  World  as  the  one  great  land  of  opportunity. 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  7 1 


EDWARD    BOK 

Although  it  was  impossible  to  include  in  this  volume  selections 
from  "The  Americanization  of  Edward  Bok,"  recently  published,  it 
seems  that  some  mention  should  be  made  of  this  delightfully  remin- 
iscent autobiography  and  of  its  author,  who  came  to  this  country  in 
1870  as  a  little  Dutch  boy  of  six  years. 

There  are  entertaining  chapters  on  his  passion  for  collecting 
autographs  from  famous  people,  on  his  visit  to  Boston  and  Cam- 
bridge to  see  Holmes  and  Longfellow  and  Emerson,  on  his  relations 
with  prominent  statesmen  and  other  notable  men  of  his  time,  and  on 
his  experiences  as  editor  of  an  influential  and  successful  magazine; 
but  most  pertinent  to  the  purpose  of  this  work  are  the  last  two  chap- 
ters of  the  book,  "Where  America  Fell  Short  with  Me,"  and  "What 
I  Owe  to  America,"  which  should  be  read  by  all  those  actively  in- 
terested in  the  Americanization  of  the  foreign-born.  In  the  first  of 
these  he  points  out  that  America  failed  to  teach  him  thrift  or  econ- 
omy; that  the  importance  of  doing  a  task  thoroughly,  the  need  of 
quality  rather  than  quantity,  was  not  inculcated ;  that  the  public 
school  fell  short  in  its  responsibility  of  seeing  that  he,  a  foreign- 
born  boy,  acquired  the  English  language  correctly;  that  he  was  not 
impressed  with  a  wholesome  and  proper  respect  for  law  and  author- 
ity; and  that,  at  the  most  critical  time,  when  he  came  to  exercise 
the  right  of  suffrage,  the  State  offered  him  no  enlightenment  or  en- 
couragement. Yet,  in  spite  of  all  this,  he  is  able  to  say:  "Whatever 
shortcomings  I  may  have  found  during  my  fifty-year  period  of 
Americanization;  however  America  may  have  failed  to  help  my 
transition  from  a  foreigner  into  an  American,  I  owe  to  her  the  most 
priceless  gift  that  any  nation  can  offer,  and  that  is  opportunity."  / 


72  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN    THE    WRITINGS 


OSCAR    SOLOMON    STRAUS 

Oscar  S.  Straus,  formerly  United  States  Ambassador  to  Turkey, 
was  born  in  Bavaria.  Besides  the  degree  A.B.  from  Columbia  Uni- 
versity, he  has  received  honorary  degrees  from  various  institutions. 
He  was  appointed  a  member  of  the  Permanent  Court  of  Arbitration 
at  The  Hague,  1902,  and  Secretary  of  Commerce  and  Labor  in  the 
cabinet  of  President  Roosevelt,  and  has  held  many  other  prominent 
positions  in  civil  and  political  affairs. 

His  chief  writings  are:  "The  Origin  of  Republican  Form  of  Gov- 
ernment in  the  United  States,"  1886;  "Roger  Williams,  the  Pioneer 
of  Religious  Liberty,"  1894;  "The  American  Spirit,"  a  collection  of 
various  addresses,  published  in  one  volume  by  the  Century  Company 
in  1893.  The  address  selected  for  quotation  here  is  that  delivered 
at  the  banquet  of  the  American  Hebrew  Congregations,  in  New 
York,  January  18,  1911. 


OF  AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  73 

AMERICA   AND    THE    SPIRIT   OF    AMERICAN 
JUDAISM 

The  spirit  of  American  Judaism  first  asserted  itself  when 
Stuyvesant,  the  Governor  of  New  Amsterdam,  would  not 
permit  the  few  Jews  who  had  emigrated  from  Portugal  to 
unite  with  the  other  burghers  in  standing  guard  for  the  pro- 
tection of  their  homes.  When  the  tax-collector  came  to 
Asser  Levy  to  demand  a  tax  on  this  account,  he  asked 
whether  that  tax  was  imposed  on  all  the  residents  of  New 
Amsterdam.  "No,"  was  the  reply,  "it  is  only  imposed  upon 
the  Jews,  because  they  do  not  stand  guard!"  "I  have  not 
asked  to  be  exempted,"  replied  Asser  Levy.  "I  am  not  only 
willing,  but  I  demand  the  right  to  stand  guard."  That  right 
the  Jews  have  asserted  and  exercised  as  officers  in  the  ranks 
of  the  Continental  Army  and  in  every  crisis  of  our  national 
history  from  that  time  until  the  present  day. 

The  American  spirit  and  the  spirit  of  American  Judaism 
were  nurtured  in  the  same  cradle  of  Liberty,  and  were 
united  in  origin,  in  ideals,  and  in  historical  development.  The 
closing  chapter  of  the  chronicles  of  the  Jews  on  the  Iberian 
peninsula  forms  the  opening  chapter  of  their  history  on  this 
Continent.  It  was  Luis  Santangel,  "the  Beaconsfield  of  his 
time,"  assisted  by  his  kinsman  Gabriel  Sanches,  the  Royal 
Treasurer  of  Aragon,  who  advanced  out  of  his  own  purse 
seventeen  thousand  florins  which  made  the  voyages  of  Colum- 
bus possible.  Luis  de  Torres,  the  interpreter  as  well  as  the 
surgeon  and  the  physician  of  the  little  fleet,  and  several  of  the 
sailors  who  were  with  Columbus  on  his  first  voyage,  as  shown 
by  the  record,  were  Jews. 

Looking  back  through  this  vista  of  more  than  four  cen- 
turies, we  have  reason  to  remember  with  justified  gratitude 
the  foresight  and  signal  services  of  those  Spanish  Jews  who 
had  the  wisdom  to  divine  the  far-reaching  possibilities  of  the 
plans  of  the  great  navigator,  whom  the  King  and  the  Queen, 
the  Dukes  and  the  Grandees  united  in  regarding  as  merely 
"a  visionary  babbler"  or,  worse  than  this,  as  "a  scheming 


74  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN   THE    WRITINGS 

adventurer."  The  royal  patrons  were  finally  won  over  by 
the  hope  that  Columbus  might  discover  new  treasures  of 
gold  and  precious  stones  to  enrich  the  Spanish  crown.  But 
not  so  with  the  Jewish  patrons,  who  caused  Columbus,  or, 
as  he  was  then  called,  Christopher  Colon,  to  be  recalled,  and 
who,  without  security  and  without  interest,  advanced  the 
money  to  fit  out  his  caravels,  since  they  saw,  as  by  divine  in- 
spiration, the  promise  and  possibility  of  the  discovery  of  an- 
other world,  which,  in  the  words  of  the  late  Emilio  Castelar 
— the  historian,  statesman,  and  one  time  President  of  Spain 
— "would  afford  to  the  quickening  principles  of  human  lib- 
erty a  temple  reared  to  the  God  of  enfranchised  and  re- 
deemed conscience,  a  land  that  would  offer  an  unstained 
abode  to  the  ideals  of  progress."  Fortunately,  the  records 
of  these  transactions  are  still  preserved  in  the  archives  of 
Simancas  in  Seville. 

It  is  idle  to  speculate  upon  hypothetical  theories  in  the 
face  of  the  facts  of  history.  Of  course,  America  would  have 
been  discovered  and  colonized  had  Columbus  never  lived ; 
but  had  the  streams  of  the  beginnings  of  American  history 
flown  from  other  sources  in  other  directions, it  would  be  futile 
even  to  make  an  imaginative  forecast  of  the  effect  they  would 
have  produced  upon  the  history  and  development  of  this 
Continent.  The  merciless  intolerance  of  an  ecclesiastical 
system  and  the  horror  of  its  persecutions  stimulated  the 
earliest  immigration,  and  subsequently  brought  about  the 
Reformation  in  Saxon  and  Anglo-Saxon  lands,  and  the  same 
spirit  drove  to  our  shores  the  Pilgrim  and  the  Puritan  fath- 
ers ;  which  chain  of  circumstances  destined  this  country  from 
the  very  beginning  to  be  the  land  of  the  immigrant  and  a 
home  for  the  fugitive  and  the  persecuted. 

The  difference  between  government  by  kings  and  nobles 
and  government  under  a  Democracy  is,  that  the  former 
rests  upon  the  power  to  compel  obedience,  while  the  latter 
rests  essentially  upon  the  sacrifice  by  the  individual  for  the 
community,  based  upon  the  ideals  of  right  and  justice.  If 
the  Pilgrims,  the  Puritans,  and  the  Huguenots  brought  with 
them,  as  they  certainly  did,  the  remembrance  of  sufferings  for 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  75 

ideals  and  the  spirit  of  sacrifice,  how  much  longer  was  that 
remembrance,  and  with  how  much  greater  intensity  did  that 
spirit  glow  in  the  souls  of  the  Jews,  whose  whole  history  is 
a  record  of  martyrdom,  of  suffering,  and  of  sacrifice  for  the 
ideals  of  civil  and  religious  liberty;  concerning  whom  it  has 
been  said:  "Of  all  the  races  and  nations  of  mankind  which 
quarter  the  arms  of  Liberty  on  the  shields  of  their  honor, 
none  has  a  better  title  to  that  decoration  than  the  Jews." 

The  spirit  of  Judaism  became  the  mother  spirit  of  Puritan- 
ism in  Old  England ;  and  the  history  of  Israel  and  its  demo- 
cratic model  under  the  Judges  inspired  and  guided  the  Pil- 
grims and  the  Puritans  in  their  wandering  hither  and  in  lay- 
ing the  foundation  of  their  commonwealths  in  New  Eng- 
land. The  piety  and  learning  of  the  Jews  bridged  the  chasm 
of  the  Middle  Ages;  and  the  torch  they  bore  amidst  trials 
and  sufferings  lighted  the  pathway  from  the  ancient  to  the 
modern  world. 

"The  historical  power  of  the  prophets  of  Israel,"  says 
James  Darmesteter,  "is  exhausted  neither  by  Judaism  nor  by 
Christianity,  and  they  hold  a  reserve  force  for  the  benefit  of 
the  coming  century.  The  twentieth  century  is  better  pre- 
pared than  the  nineteen  preceding  it  to  understand  them." 
While  Zionism  is  a  pious  hope  and  a  vision  out  of  despair  in 
countries  where  the  victims  of  oppression  are  still  counted  by 
millions,  the  republicanism  of  the  United  States  is  the  nearest 
approach  to  the  ideals  of  the  prophets  of  Israel  that  ever  has 
been  incorporated  in  the  form  of  a  state.  The  founders  of 
our  government  converted  the  dreams  of  philosophers  into  a 
political  system, — a  government  by  the  people,  for  the  people, 
whereunder  the  rights  of  man  became  the  rights  of  men,  se- 
cured and  guaranteed  by  a  written  constitution.  Ours  is  pe- 
culiarly a  promised  land  wherein  the  spirit  of  the  teachings 
of  the  ancient  prophets  inspired  the  work  of  the  fathers  of 
our  country. 

American  liberty  demands  of  no  man  the  abandonment  of 
his  conscientious  convictions ;  on  the  contrary,  it  had  its  birth,     X 
not  in  the  narrowness  of  uniformity,  but  in  the  breadth  of 
diversity,  which  patriotism  fuses  together  into  a  conscious 


76  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN    THE   WRITINGS 

harmony  for  the  highest  welfare  of  all.  The  Protestant,  the 
Catholic,  and  the  Jew,  each  and  all  need  the  support  and  the 
sustaining  power  of  their  religion  to  develop  their  moral  na- 
tures and  to  keep  alive  the  spirit  of  self-sacrifice  which  Amer- 
ican patriotism  demands  of  every  man,  whatever  may  be  his 
creed  or  race,  who  is  worthy  to  enjoy  the  blessings  of  Ameri- 
can citizenship. 

I  do  not  wish  to  be  misunderstood  as  claiming  any  special 
merit  for  the  Jews  as  American  citizens  which  is  not  equally 
possessed  by  the  Americans  of  other  creeds.  They  have  the 
good  as  well  as  the  bad  among  them,  the  noble  and  the 
ignoble,  the  worthy  and  the  unworthy.  They  have  the  qual- 
ities as  well  as  the  defects  of  their  fellow-citizens.  In  a 
word,  they  are  not  any  less  patriotic  Americans  because  they 
are  Jews,  nor  any  less  loyal  Jews  because  they  are  primarily 
patriotic  Americans. 

The  Jew  is  neither  a  newcomer  nor  an  alien  in  this  coun- 
try or  on  this  continent;  his  Americanism  is  as  original  and 
ancient  as  that  of  any  race  or  people  with  the  exception  of  the 
American  Indian  and  other  aborigines.  He  came  in  the 
caravels  of  Columbus,  and  he  knocked  at  the  gates  of  New 
Amsterdam  only  thirty-five  years  after  the  Pilgrim  Fathers 
stepped  ashore  on  Plymouth  Rock. 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  77 


FELIX   ADLER 

Felix  Adler,  lecturer  and  writer  on  moral  and  ethical  subjects, 
was  born  in  Alzey,  Germany,  in  1851.  He  received  the  degree  A.B. 
from  Columbia  University,  and  continued  his  studies  at  Berlin  and 
at  the  University  of  Heidelberg.  From  1874  to  1876  he  was  pro- 
fessor of  Hebrew  at  Cornell  University.  Since  1902  he  has  been 
professor  of  political  and  social  ethics  at  Columbia.  He  has  produced 
numerous  works  on  moral  and  ethical  topics.  In  1915  there  was 
published  his  book,  "The  World  Crisis  and  its  Meaning,"  the  third 
chapter  of  which  is  here  quoted  in  part. 

Adler's  keen  interest  in  international  ethics  has  been  expressed  in 
several  addresses  delivered  before  the  New  York  Society  of  Ethical 
Culture,  which  was  founded  by  him  in  1876.  Among  other  things 
he  pleads  for  altruism  among  the  nations,  and  truthfulness,  and  be- 
lieves in  a  purified  nationalism  instead  of  anti-  or  inter-nationalism. 


78  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN    THE   WRITINGS 


THE   AMERICAN    IDEAL 

The  American  ideal  is  that  of  the  uncommon  quality  latent 
in  the  common  man.  Necessarily  it  is  an  ethical  ideal,  a 
spiritual  ideal;  otherwise  it  would  be  nonsense.  For,  taking 
men  as  they  are,  they  are  assuredly  not  equal.  The  differ- 
ences between  them,  on  the  contrary,  are  glaring.  The  com- 
mon man  is  not  uncommonly  fine  spiritually,  but  rather,  seen 
from  the  outside,  "uncommonly"  common.  It  is  therefore 
an  ethical  instinct  that  has  turned  the  people  toward  this 
ethical  conception. 

It  is  true  that  in  Germany  and  in  England,  side  by  side 
with  the  efficiency  and  the  mastery  ideals,  there  has  always 
existed  this  same  spiritual  or  religious  ideal ;  side  by  side  with 
the  stratification  and  entitulation  of  men,  the  labelling  of 
them  as  lower  and  higher,  as  empirically  better  or  worse, 
there  has  always  been  the  recognition  that  men  are  equal, — 
equal,  that  is  to  say,  in  church,  but  not  outside,  equal  in  the 
hereafter,  but  not  in  this  life.  If  we  would  fathom  the  real 
depth  and  inner  significance  of  the  democratic  ideal  as  it 
slumbers  or  dreams  in  the  heart  of  America,  rather  than  as 
yet  explicit,  we  must  say  that  it  is  an  ideal  which  seeks  to 
overcome  this  very  dualism,  seeks  to  take  the  spiritual  con- 
ception of  human  equality  out  of  the  church  and  put  it  into 
the  market  place,  to  take  it  from  far  off  celestial  realms  for 
realization  upon  this  earth.  For  men  are  not  equal  in  the 
empirical  sense;  they  are  equal  only  in  the  spiritual  sense, 
equal  only  in  the  sense  that  the  margin  of  achievement  of 
which  any  person  is  capable,  be  it  wide  or  narrow,  is  infini- 
tesimal compared  with  his  infinite  spiritual  possibilities. 

It  is  because  of  this  subconscious  ethical  motive  that  there 
is  this  generous  air  of  expectation  in  America,  that  we  are 
always  wondering  what  will  happen  next,  or  who  will  hap- 
pen next.  Will  another  Emerson  come  along?  Will  an- 
other Lincoln  come  along?  We  do  not  know.  But  this  we 
know,  that  the  greatest  lusters  of  our  past  already  tend  to 
fade  in  our  memory,  not  because  we  are  irreverent,  but  be- 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  79 

cause  nothing  that  the  past  has  accomplished  can  content  us; 
because  we  are  looking  for  greatness  beyond  greatness,  truth 
beyond  truth  ever  yet  spoken.  The  Germans  have  a  legend 
that  in  their  hour  of  need  an  ancient  emperor  will  arise  out 
of  the  tomb  where  he  slumbers  to  stretch  his  protecting  hand 
over  the  Fatherland.  We  Americans,  too,  have  the  belief 
that,  if  ever  such  an  hour  comes  for  us,  there  will  arise  spirits 
clothed  in  human  flesh  amongst  us  sufficient  for  our  need,  but 
spirits  that  will  come,  as  it  were,  out  of  the  future  to  meet 
our  advancing  host  and  lead  it,  not  ghosts  out  of  the  storied 
past.  For  America  differs  from  all  other  nations  in  that  it 
derives  its  inspiration  from  the  future.  Every  other  people 
has  some  culture,  some  civilization,  handed  down  from  the 
past,  of  which  it  is  the  custodian,  and  which  it  seeks  to  de- 
velop. The  American  people  have  no  such  single  tradition. 
They  are  dedicated,  not  to  the  preservation  of  what  has  been, 
but  to  the  creation  of  what  never  has  been.  They  are  the 
prophets  of  the  future,  not  the  priests  of  the  past. 

I  have  spoken  above  of  ideals,  of  what  is  fine  in  a  nation, 
of  fine  tendencies.  The  idea  which  a  people  has  of  itself, 
like  the  idea  which  an  individual  has  of  himself,  often  does 
not  tally  with  the  reality.  If  we  look  at  the  realities  of 
American  life, — and,  on  the  principle  of  corruptio  optimi 
pessima,  we  should  be  prepared  for  what  we  see, — we  are 
dismayed  to  observe  in  actual  practice  what  seems  like  a  mon- 
strous caricature, — not  democracy,  but  plutocracy;  kings  ex- 
pelled and  the  petty  political  bosses  in  their  stead ;  merciless 
exploitation  of  the  economically  weak, — a  precipitate  reduc- 
tion of  wages,  for  instance,  at  the  first  signs  of  approaching 
depression,  in  advance  of  what  is  required, — instead  of  re- 
spect for  the  sacred  personality  of  human  beings,  the  utmost 
disrespect.  Certainly  the  nation  needs  strong  and  persistent 
ethical  teaching  in  order  to  make  it  aware  of  its  better  self 
and  of  what  is  implied  in  the  political  institutions  which  it 
has  founded. 

But  ethical  teaching  alone  will  not  suffice.  It  must  be  ad- 
mitted that  a  danger  lurks  in  the  idea  of  equality  itself.  The 
danger  is  that  differences  in  refinement,  in  culture,  in  intel- 


80  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN   THE   WRITINGS 

lectual  ability  and  attainments  are  apt  to  be  insufficiently 
emphasized;  that  the  untutored,  the  uncultivated,  the  intel- 
lectually undeveloped,  are  apt  presumptuously  to  put  them- 
selves on  a  par  with  those  of  superior  development ;  and  hence 
that  superiority,  failing  to  meet  with  recognition,  will  be 
discouraged  and  democracy  tend  to  level  men  downward  in- 
stead of  upward.  This  will  not  be  true  so  much  of  such  moral 
excellence  as  appears  in  an  Emerson  or  a  Lincoln, — for  there 
is  that  in  the  lowliest  which  responds  to  the  manifestations 
of  transcendent  moral  beauty, — but  it  will  hold  good  of  those 
minor  superiorities  that  fall  short  of  the  highest  in  art  and 
science  and  conduct,  yet  upon  the  fostering  of  which  depends 
the  eventual  appearance  of  culture's  richest  fruits. 

In  order  to  ward  off  this  danger  we  must  have  a  new  and 
larger  educational  policy  in  our  schools  than  has  yet  been  put 
in  practice.  Vocational  training  in  its  broadest  and  deepest 
sense  will  be  our  greatest  aid. 

Democracy,  the  American  democracy,  is  the  St.  Christo- 
pher. St.  Christopher  bore  the  Christ  child  on  his  shoulders 
as  he  stepped  into  the  river,  and  the  child  was  as  light  as  a 
feather.  But  it  became  heavier  and  heavier  as  he  entered 
the  stream,  until  he  was  well  nigh  borne  down  by  it.  So  we, 
in  the  heyday  of  1776,  stepped  into  the  stream  with  the  in- 
fant Democracy  on  our  shoulders,  and  it  was  light  as  a 
feather's  weight;  but  it  is  becoming  heavier  and  heavier  the 
deeper  we  are  getting  into  the  stream — heavier  and  heavier. 
When  we  began,  there  were  four  or  five  millions.  Now 
there  are  ninety  millions.  Heavier  and  heavier!  And  there 
are  other  millions  coming.  When  we  began  we  were  a 
homogeneous  people;  now  there  are  those  twenty-three  lan- 
guages spoken  in  a  single  school.  And  with  this  vast  multi- 
tude, and  this  heterogeneous  population,  we  are  trying  the 
most  difficult  experiment  that  has  ever  been  attempted  in  the 
world, — trying  to  invest  with  sovereignty  the  common  man. 
There  has  been  the  sovereignty  of  kings,  and  now  and  then 
a  king  has  done  well.  There  has  been  the  sovereignty  of 
aristocracies,  and  now  and  then  an  English  aristocracy  or  a 
Venetian  aristocracy  has  done  well — though  never  wholly 


OF  AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  8l 

/ 

well.  And  now  we  are  imposing  this  most  difficult  task  of 
government,  which  depends  on  the  recognition  of  excellence 
in  others,  so  that  the  best  may  rule  in  our  behalf,  on  the 
shoulders  of  the  multitude.  These  are  our  difficulties.  But 
our  difficulties  are  also  our  opportunities.  This  land  is  the 
Promised  Land.  It  is  that  not  only  in  the  sense  in  which  the 
word  is  commonly  taken — that  is  to  say,  a  haven  for  the  dis- 
advantaged of  other  countries,  a  land  whither  the  oppressed 
may  come  to  repair  their  fortunes  and  breathe  freely  and 
achieve  material  independence,  That  is  but  one  side  of  the 
promise.  In  that  sense  the  Anglo-American  native  popula- 
tion is  the  host,  extending  hospitality,  the  benefactor  of  the 
immigrants.  But  this  is  also  the  land  of  promise  for  the  na- 
tive population  themselves,  in  order  that  they  may  be  pene- 
trated by  the  influence  of  what  is  best  in  the  newcomers,  in 
order  that  their  too  narrow  horizon  may  be  widened,  in  order 
that  their  stiffened  mental  bent  may  become  more  flexible; 
that  festivity,  pageant  and  song  may  be  added  to  their  life  by 
the  newcomers;  that  echoes  of  ancient  prophecy  may  inspire 
the  matter-of-fact,  progressive  movements,  so-called,  of  our 
day. 

America  is  the  Wonderland,  hid  for  ages  in  the  secret  of 
the  sea,  then  revealed.  At  first,  how  abused!  Spanish  con- 
querors trampled  it;  it  was  the  nesting  place  of  buccaneers, 
adventurers,  if  also  the  home  of  the  Puritans — bad  men  and 
good  men  side  by  side.  Then  for  dreary  centuries  the  home 
of  slavery.  Then  the  scene  of  prolonged  strife.  And  now, 
on  the  surface,  the  stamping  ground  of  vulgar  plutocrats! 
And  yet,  in  the  hearts  of  the  elect, — yes,  and  in  the  hearts  of 
the  masses,  too, — inarticulate  and  dim,  there  has  ever  been 
present  a  fairer  and  nobler  ideal,  the  ideal  of  a  Republic 
built  on  the  uncommon  fineness  in  the  common  man!  To 
live  for  that  ideal  is  the  true  Americanism,  the  larger  pa- 
triotism. To  that  ideal,  not  on  the  field  of  battle,  as  in 
Europe,  but  in  the  arduous  toil  of  peace,  let  us  be  willing  to 
give  the  "last  full  measure  of  devotion." 


82  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN   THE   WRITINGS 


MARY   ANTIN 

With  the  publication  in  1912  of  Mary  Antin's  "The  Promised 
Land,"  a  new  interest  was  awakened  in  the  experiences  of  the  for- 
eign-born, and  since  then  several  important  autobiographies  of  im- 
migrants have  appeared. 

Miss  Antin,  who  was  born  in  Polotzk,  Russia,  in  1881,  and  came 
to  America  in  1894,  was  educated  in  the  public  schools  of  Boston, 
later  attending  Teachers'  College  and  Barnard  College,  Columbia 
University.  Many  an  American  boy  and  girl  is  familiar  with  her 
fine  tribute  to  the  part  of  the  public  school  in  her  Americanization. 

In  1914  she  published  "They  Who  Knock  at  Our  Gates,"  "a 
complete  gospel  of  immigration,"  in  which  she  aims  to  refute  the 
material  and  selfish  arguments  of  the  restrictionists,  basing  her  plea 
for  a  nobler  and  more  liberal  treatment  of  the  immigration  question 
upon  the  fundamental  principles  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 
It  is  from  this  volume  and  "The  Promised  Land"  that  the  following 
selections  are  taken. 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  83 


AN  IMMIGRANT'S  TRIBUTE  TO  THE  PUBLIC 
SCHOOL  AND  TO  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

The  public  school  has  done  its  best  for  us  foreigners,  and 
for  the  country,  when  it  has  made  us  into  good  Americans. 
I  am  glad  it  is  mine  to  tell  how  the  miracle  was  wrought  in 
one  case.  You  should  be  glad  to  hear  of  it,  you  born  Amer- 
icans; for  it  is  the  story  of  the  growth  of  your  country;  of 
the  flocking  of  your  brothers  and  sisters  from  the  far  ends  of 
the  earth  to  the  flag  you  love ;  of  the  recruiting  of  your  armies 
of  workers,  thinkers,  and  leaders.  And  you  will  be  glad  to 
hear  of  it,  my  comrades  in  adoption;  for  it  is  a  rehearsal  of 
your  own  experience,  the  thrill  and  wonder  of  which  your 
own  hearts  have  felt. 

How  long  would  you  say,  wise  reader,  it  takes  to  make  an 
American  ?  By  the  middle  of  my  second  year  in  school  I  had 
reached  the  sixth  grade.  When,  after  the  Christmas  holi- 
days, we  began  to  study  the  life  of  Washington,  running 
through  a  summary  of  the  Revolution,  and  the  early  days  of 
the  Republic,  it  seemed  to  me  that  all  my  reading  and  study 
had  been  idle  until  then.  The  reader,  the  arithmetic,  the 
song  book,  that  had  so  fascinated  me  until  now,  became  sud- 
denly sober  exercise  books,  tools  wherewith  to  hew  a  way  to 
the  source  of  inspiration.  When  the  teacher  read  to  us  out 
of  a  big  book  with  many  bookmarks  in  it,  I  sat  rigid  with  at- 
tention in  my  little  chair,  my  hands  tightly  clasped  on  the 
edge  of  my  desk ;  and  I  painfully  held  my  breath,  to  prevent 
sighs  of  disappointment  escaping,  as  I  saw  the  teacher  skip  the 
parts  between  bookmarks.  When  the  class  read,  and  it  came 
my  turn,  my  voice  shook  and  the  book  trembled  in  my  hands. 
I  could  not  pronounce  the  name  of  George  Washington 
without  a  pause.  Never  had  I  prayed,  never  had  I  chanted 
the  songs  of  David,  never  had  I  called  upon  the  Most  Holy, 
in  such  utter  reverence  and  worship  as  I  repeated  the  simple 
sentences  of  my  child's  story  of  the  patriot.  I  gazed  with 
adoration  at  the  portraits  of  George  and  Martha  Washing- 


84  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN    THE   WRITINGS 

ton,  till  I  could  see  them  with  my  eyes  shut.  And  whereas 
formerly  my  self-consciousness  had  bordered  on  conceit,  and 
I  thought  myself  an  uncommon  person,  parading  my  school- 
books  through  the  streets,  and  swelling  with  pride  when  a 
teacher  detained  me  in  conversation,  now  I  grew  humble  all 
at  once,  seeing  how  insignificant  I  was  beside  the  Great. 

As  I  read  about  the  noble  boy  who  would  not  tell  a  lie  to 
save  himself  from  punishment,  I  was  for  the  first  time  truly 
repentant  of  my  sins.  Formerly  I  had  fasted  and  prayed  and 
made  sacrifice  on  the  Day  of  Atonement,  but  it  was  more  than 
half  play,  in  mimicry  of  my  elders.  I  had  no  real  horror  of 
sin,  and  I  knew  so  many  ways  of  escaping  punishment.  I  am 
sure  my  family,  my  neighbors,  my  teachers  in  Polotzk — all 
my  world,  in  fact — strove  together,  by  example  and  precept, 
to  teach  me  goodness.  Saintliness  had  a  new  incarnation  in 
about  every  third  person  I  knew.  I  did  respect  the  saints, 
but  I  could  not  help  seeing  that  most  of  them  were  a  little 
bit  stupid,  and  that  mischief  was  much  more  fun  than  piety. 
Goodness,  as  I  had  known  it,  was  respectable,  but  not  neces- 
sarily admirable.  The  people  I  really  admired,  like  my  Uncle 
Solomon  and  Cousin  Rachel,  were  those  who  preached  the 
least  and  laughed  the  most.  My  sister  Frieda  was  perfectly 
good,  but  she  did  not  think  the  less  of  me  because  I  played 
tricks.  What  I  loved  in  my  friends  was  not  inimitable.  One 
could  be  downright  good  if  one  really  wanted  to.  One 
could  be  learned  if  one  had  books  and  teachers.  One  could 
sing  funny  songs  and  tell  anecdotes  if  one  traveled  about  and 
picked  up  such  things,  like  one's  uncles  and  cousins.  But  a 
human  being  strictly  good,  perfectly  wise,  and  unfailingly 
valiant,  all  at  the  same  time,  I  had  never  heard  or  dreamed 
of.  This  wonderful  George  Washington  was  as  inimitable 
as  he  was  irreproachable.  Even  if  I  had  never,  never  told  a 
lie,  I  could  not  compare  myself  to  George  Washington ;  for  I 
was  not  brave, — I  was  afraid  to  go  out  when  snowballs 
whizzed, — and  I  could  never  be  the  First  President  of  the 
United  States. 

So  I  was  forced  to  revise  my  own  estimate  of  myself.  But 
the  twin  of  my  new-born  humility,  paradoxical  as  it  may 


OF  AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  85 

seem,  was  a  sense  of  dignity  I  had  never  known  before.  For 
if  I  found  that  I  was  a  person  of  small  consequence,  I  dis- 
covered at  the  same  time  that  I  was  more  nobly  related  than 
I  had  ever  supposed.  I  had  relatives  and  friends  who  were 
notable  people  by  the  old  standards, — and  I  had  never  been 
ashamed  of  my  family, — but  this  George  Washington,  who 
died  long  before  I  was  born,  was  like  a  king  in  greatness, 
and  he  and  I  were  Fellow-Citizens.  There  was  a  great  deal 
about  Fellow-Citizens  in  the  patriotic  literature  we  read  at 
this  time ;  and  I  knew  from  my  father  how  he  was  a  Citizen 
through  the  process  of  naturalization,  and  how  I  also  was  a 
Citizen  by  virtue  of  my  relation  to  him.  Undoubtedly  I  was 
a  Fellow-Citizen,  and  George  Washington  was  another.  It 
thrilled  me  to  realize  what  sudden  greatness  had  fallen  on 
me,  and  at  the  same  time  sobered  me,  as  with  a  sense  of  re- 
sponsibility. I  strove  to  conduct  myself  as  befitted  a  Fellow- 
Citizen. 

Before  books  came  into  my  life,  I  was  given  to  stargazing 
and  daydreaming.  When  books  were  given  me,  I  fell  upon 
them  as  a  glutton  pounces  on  his  meat  after  a  period  of  en- 
forced starvation.  I  lived  with  my  nose  in  a  book,  and  took 
no  notice  of  the  alterations  of  the  sun  and  stars.  But  now, 
after  the  advent  of  George  Washington  and  the  American 
Revolution,  I  began  to  dream  again.  I  strayed  on  the  Com- 
mon after  school  instead  of  hurrying  home  to  read.  I  hung 
on  fence  rails,  my  pet  book  forgotten  under  my  arm,  and 
gazed  off  to  the  yellow-streaked  February  sunset,  and  beyond, 
and  beyond.  I  was  no  longer  the  central  figure  of  my 
dreams ;  the  dry  weeds  in  the  lane  crackled  beneath  the  tread 
of  Heroes. 

What  more  could  America  give  a  child  ?  Ah,  much  more  I 
As  I  read  how  the  patriots  planned  the  Revolution,  and  the 
women  gave  their  sons  to  die  in  battle,  and  the  heroes  led  to- 
victory,  and  the  rejoicing  people  set  up  the  Republic,  it 
dawned  on  me  gradually  what  was  meant  by  my  country. 
The  people  all  desiring  noble  things,  and  striving  for  them 
together,  defying  their  oppressors,  giving  their  lives  for  each- 
other, — all  this  it  was  that  made  my  country.     It  was  not  a 


/ 


86  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN    THE   WRITINGS 

thing  that  I  understood;  I  could  not  go  home  and  tell  Frieda 
about  it,  as  I  told  her  other  things  I  learned  at  school.  But  I 
knew  one  could  say  "my  country"  and  feel  it,  as  one  felt 
"God"  or  "myself."  My  teacher,  my  schoolmates,  Miss 
Dillingham,  George  Washington  himself,  could  not  mean 
more  than  I  when  they  said  "my  country,"  after  I  had  once 
felt  it.  For  the  Country  was  for  all  the  Citizens,  and  /  was 
a  citizen.  And  when  we  stood  up  to  sing  "America,"  I 
shouted  the  words  with  all  my  might.  I  was  in  very  earnest 
proclaiming  to  the  world  my  love  for  my  new-found  country. 

"I  love  thy  rocks  and  rills, 
Thy  woods  and  templed  hills." 

Boston  Harbor,  Crescent  Beach,  Chelsea  Square, — all  was 
hallowed  ground  to  me.  As  the  day  approached  when  the 
school  was  to  hold  exercises  in  honor  of  Washington's  Birth- 
day, the  halls  resounded  at  all  hours  with  the  strains  of  patri- 
otic songs;  and  I,  who  was  a  model  of  the  attentive  pupil, 
more  than  once  lost  my  place  in  the  lesson  as  I  strained  to 
hear,  through  closed  doors,  some  neighboring  class  rehearsing 
"The  Star-Spangled  Banner."  If  the  doors  happened  to 
open,  and  the  chorus  broke  out  unveiled, — 

"O !  say,  does  that  Star-Spangled  Banner  yet  wave 
O'er  the  land  of  the  free,  and  the  home  of  the  brave?" 

delicious  tremors  ran  up  and  down  my  spine,  and  I  was  faint 
with  suppressed  enthusiasm. 

Where  had  been  my  country  until  now?  What  flag  had 
I  loved?  What  heroes  had  I  worshipped?  The  very  names 
of  these  things  had  been  unknown  to  me.  Well  I  knew  that 
Polotzk  was  not  my  country.  It  was  goluth — exile.  On 
many  occasions  in  the  year  we  prayed  to  God  to  lead  us  out 
of  exile.  The  beautiful  Passover  service  closed  with  the 
words,  "Next  year,  may  we  be  in  Jerusalem."  On  childish 
lips,  indeed,  those  words  were  no  conscious  aspiration;  we 
repeated  the  Hebrew  syllables  after  our  elders,  but  without 
their  hope  and  longing.     Still  not  a  child  among  us  was  too 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  87 

young  to  feel  in  his  own  flesh  the  lash  of  the  oppressor.  We 
knew  what  it  was  to  be  Jews  in  exile,  from  the  spiteful 
treatment  we  suffered  at  the  hands  of  the  smallest  urchin 
who  crossed  himself;  and  thence  we  knew  that  Israel  had 
good  reason  to  pray  for  deliverance.  But  the  story  of  the 
Exodus  was  not  history  to  me  in  the  sense  that  the  story  of 
the  American  Revolution  was.  It  was  more  like  a  glorious 
myth,  a  belief  in  which  had  the  effect  of  cutting  me  off  from 
the  actual  world,  by  linking  me  with  a  world  of  phantoms. 
Those  moments  of  exaltation  which  the  contemplation  of 
the  Biblical  past  afforded  us,  allowing  us  to  call  ourselves  the 
children  of  princes,  served  but  to  tinge  with  a  more  poignant 
sense  of  disinheritance  the  long  humdrum  stretches  of  our 
life.  In  very  truth  we  were  a  people  without  a  country. 
Surrounded  by  mocking  foes  and  detractors,  it  was  difficult 
for  me  to  realize  the  persons  of  my  people's  heroes  or  the 
events  in  which  they  moved.  Except  in  moments  of  ab- 
straction from  the  world  around  me,  I  scarcely  understood 
that  Jerusalem  was  an  actual  spot  on  the  earth,  where  once 
the  Kings  of  the  Bible,  real  people,  like  my  neighbors  in 
Polotzk,  ruled  in  puissant  majesty.  For  the  conditions  of 
our  civil  life  did  not  permit  us  to  cultivate  a  spirit  of  na- 
tionalism. The  freedom  of  worship  that  was  grudgingly 
granted  within  the  narrow  limits  of  the  Pale  by  no  means 
included  the  right  to  set  up  openly  any  ideal  of  a  Hebrew 
State,  any  hero  other  than  the  Czar.  What  we  children 
picked  up  of  our  ancient  political  history  was  confused  with 
the  miraculous  story  of  the  Creation,  with  the  supernatural 
legends  and  hazy  associations  of  Bible  lore.  As  to  our  future, 
we  Jews  in  Polotzk  had  no  national  expectations;  only  a 
life-worn  dreamer  here  and  there  hoped  to  die  in  Palestine. 
If  Fetchke  and  I  sang,  with  my  father,  first  making  sure  of 
our  audience,  "Zion,  Zion,  Holy  Zion,  not  forever  is  it  lost," 
we  did  not  really  picture  to  ourselves  Judasa  restored. 

So  it  came  to  pass  that  we  did  not  know  what  my  country 
could  mean  to  a  man.  And  as  we  had  no  country,  so  we 
had  no  flag  to  love.  It  was  by  no  far-fetched  symbolism 
that  the  banner  of  the  House  of  Romanoff  became  the  emblem 


X 


88  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN   THE   WRITINGS 

of  our  latter-day  bondage  in  our  eyes.  Even  a  child  would 
know  how  to  hate  the  flag  that  we  were  forced,  on  pain  of 
severe  penalties, to  hoist  above  our  housetops,  in  celebration  of 
the  advent  of  one  of  our  oppressors.  And  as  it  was  with 
country  and  flag,  so  it  was  with  heroes  of  war.  We  hated  the 
uniform  of  the  soldier,  to  the  last  brass  button.  On  the  person 
of  a  Gentile,  it  was  the  symbol  of  tyranny ;  on  the  person  of  a 
Jew,  it  was  the  emblem  of  shame. 

So  a  little  Jewish  girl  in  Polotzk  was  apt  to  grow  up  hun- 
gry-minded and  empty-hearted;  and  if,  still  in  her  outreach- 
ing  youth,  she  was  set  down  in  a  land  of  outspoken  patriot- 
ism, she  was  likely  to  love  her  new  country  with  a  great 
love,  and  to  embrace  its  heroes  in  a  great  worship.  Naturaliza- 
tion, with  us  Russian  Jews,  may  mean  more  than  the  adop- 
tion of  the  immigrant  by  America.  It  may  mean  the  adop- 
tion of  America  by  the  immigrant. 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  89 


THE    LAW    OF   THE    FATHERS:    A    VIEW    OF 
THE    DECLARATION    OF    INDEPENDENCE 

If  I  ask  an  American  what  is  the  fundamental  American 
law,  and  he  does  not  answer  me  promptly,  "That  which  is 
contained  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence,"  I  put  him 
down  for  a  poor  citizen.  He  who  is  ignorant  of  the  law  is 
likely  to  disobey  it.  And  there  cannot  be  two  minds  about 
the  position  of  the  Declaration  among  our  documents  of 
State.  What  the  Mosaic  Law  is  to  the  Jews,  the  Declara- 
tion is  to  the  American  people.  It  affords  us  a  starting- 
point  in  history  and  defines  our  mission  among  the  nations. 
Without  it,  we  should  not  differ  greatly  from  other  nations 
who  achieved  a  constitutional  form  of  government  and  vari- 
ous democratic  institutions.  What  marks  us  out  from  other 
advanced  nations  is  the  origin  of  our  liberties  in  one  supreme 
act  of  political  innovation,  prompted  by  a  conscious  sense  of 
the  dignity  of  manhood.  In  other  countries  advances  have 
been  made  by  favor  of  hereditary  rulers  and  aristocratic  par- 
liaments, each  successive  reform  being  grudgingly  handed 
down  to  the  people  from  above.  Not  so  in  America.  At 
one  bold  stroke  we  shattered  the  monarchical  tradition,  and 
installed  the  people  in  the  seats  of  government,  substituting 
the  gospel  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  masses  for  the  supersti- 
tion of  the  divine  right  of  kings. 

And  even  more  notable  than  the  boldness  of  the  act  was 
the  dignity  with  which  it  was  entered  upon.  In  terms  befit- 
ting a  philosophical  discourse,  we  gave  notice  to  the  world 
that  what  we  were  about  to  do,  we  would  do  in  the  name  of 
humanity,  in  the  conviction  that  as  justice  is  the  end  of  gov- 
ernment, so  should  manhood  be  its  source. 

It  is  this  insistence  on  the  philosophic  sanction  of  our  re- 
volt that  gives  the  sublime  touch  to  our  political  perform- 
ance. Up  to  the  moment  of  our  declaration  of  independence, 
our  struggle  with  our  English  rulers  did  not  differ  from 
other  popular  struggles  against  despotic  governments.    Again 


y 


90  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN   THE   WRITINGS 

and  again  we  respectfully  petitioned  for  redress  of  specific 
grievances,  as  the  governed,  from  time  immemorial,  have 
petitioned  their  governors.  But  one  day  we  abandoned  our 
suit  for  petty  damages,  and  instituted  a  suit  for  the  recovery 
of  our  entire  human  heritage  of  freedom;  and  by  basing  our 
claim  on  the  fundamental  principles  of  the  brotherhood  of 
man  and  the  sovereignty  of  the  masses,  we  assumed  the 
championship  of  the  oppressed  against  their  oppressors,  wher- 
ever found. 

It  was  thus,  by  sinking  our  particular  quarrel  with  George 
of  England  in  the  universal  quarrel  of  humanity  with  injus- 
tice, that  we  emerged  a  distinct  nation,  with  a  unique  mission 
in  the  world.  And  we  revealed  ourselves  to  the  world  in 
the  Declaration  of  Independence,  even  as  the  Israelites  re- 
vealed themselves  in  the  Law  of  Moses.  From  the 
Declaration  flows  our  race  consciousness,  our  sense  of  what 
is  and  what  is  not  American.  Our  laws,  our  policies,  the 
successive  steps  of  our  progress, — all  must  conform  to  the 
spirit  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  the  source  of  our 
national  being. 

The  American  confession  of  faith,  therefore,  is  a  recital  of 
the  doctrines  of  liberty  and  equality.  A  faithful  American 
is  one  who  understands  these  doctrines  and  applies  them  in 
his  life. 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  gi 


ABRAHAM   MITRIE   RIHBANY 

An  intense  seriousness  is  one  of  the  prominent  characteristics  of 
the  writings  of  the  immigrant;  for  immigration  is  a  serious  and 
often  a  hazardous  undertaking,  as  the  immigrant  best  knows.  But 
that  he  has  not  failed  to  appreciate  the  amusing  side  of  the  read- 
justment period  is  evidenced  by  the  many  touches  of  humor  in  his 
accounts  of  his  relation  to  his  new  environment.  One  of  the  most 
pleasing  and  inspiriting  of  these  accounts  is  "A  Far  Journey,"  by 
Abraham  M.  Rihbany,  who  was  born  in  Syria  in  the  year  1869,  and 
who  came  to  the  United  States  with  little  money,  but  with  much 
native  intelligence  and  an  open  and  receptive  mind  and  soul,  eager 
for  the  very  best  that  America  has  to  give. 

The  bad  effects  of  the  gregariousness  of  the  foreigner  in  America 
have  frequently  been  pointed  out  and  deplored ;  most  writers  on 
immigration  have  failed  to  see  or  mention  any  of  its  benefits.  It  is 
interesting  to  know  the  opinion  on  this  vexing  question  of  one  who 
has  himself  passed  safely  through  a  critical  transition  period.  Speak- 
ing of  his  own  experience  he  says  that  the  Syrian  colony  in  New 
York  "was  a  habitat  so  much  like  the  one  I  had  left  behind  me  in 
Syria  that  its  home  atmosphere  enabled  me  to  maintain  a  firm  hold 
on  life  in  the  face  of  the  many  difficulties  which  confronted  me  in 
those  days,  and  just  different  enough  to  awaken  my  curiosity  to 
know  more  about  the  surrounding  American  influences."  Impelled 
by  the  question,  "Where  is  America?"  and  longing  for  "something 
more  in  the  life  of  America  than  the  mere  loaves  and  fishes,"  he 
determined  to  leave  New  York  and  "seek  the  smaller  centers  of  popu- 
lation, where  men  came  in  friendly  touch  with  one  another,  daily." 


92  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN    THE    WRITINGS 


AMERICA   OFFERS    SOMETHING   BETTER 
THAN    MONEY 

I  was  told  while  in  Syria  that  in  America  money  could  be 
picked  up  everywhere.  That  was  not  true.  But  I  found 
that  infinitely  better  things  than  money — knowledge,  free- 
dom, self-reliance,  order,  cleanliness,  sovereign  human 
rights,  self-government,  and  all  that  these  great  accomplish- 
ments imply — can  be  picked  up  everywhere  in  America  by 
whosoever  earnestly  seeks  them.  And  those  among  Ameri- 
cans who  are  exerting  the  largest  influence  toward  the  solu- 
tion of  the  "immigration  problem"  are,  in  my  opinion,  not 
those  who  are  writing  books  on  "good  citizenship,"  but  those 
who  stand  before  the  foreigner  as  the  embodiment  of  these 
great  ideals. 

The  occasions  on  which  I  was  made  to  feel  that  I  was  a 
foreigner — an  alien — were  so  rare  that  they  are  not  worth 
mentioning.  My  purpose  in  life,  and  the  large,  warm  heart 
of  America  which  opens  to  every  person  who  aspires  to  be  a 
good  and  useful  citizen,  made  me  forget  that  there  was  an 
"immigration  problem"  within  the  borders  of  this  great 
Commonwealth.  When  I  think  of  the  thousand  noble  im- 
pulses which  were  poured  into  my  soul  in  my  early  years  in 
this  country  by  good  men  and  women  in  all  walks  of  life ; 
when  I  think  of  the  many  homes  in  which  I  was  received 
with  my  uncomely  appearance  and  with  my  crude  manners, 
where  women  who  were  visions  of  elegance  served  me  as  an 
honored  guest,  of  the  many  counsels  of  men  of  affairs  which 
fed  my  strength  and  taught  me  the  lasting  value  of  personal 
achievements,  and  that  America  is  the  land  of  not  only  great 
privileges,  but  great  responsibilities,  I  feel  like  saying  (and 
I  do  say  whenever  I  have  the  opportunity)  to  every  for- 
eigner, "When  you  really  know  what  America  is,  when  you 
are  willing  to  share  in  its  sorrows,  as  well  as  its  joys,  then 
you  will  cease  to  be  a  whining  malcontent,  will  take  your 
harp  down  from  the  willows,  and  will  not  call  such  a  coun- 
try 'a  strange  land.'  " 


OF  AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  93 

Of  all  the  means  of  improvement  other  than  personal  asso- 
ciations with  good  men  and  women,  the  churches  and  the 
public  schools  gripped  most  strongly  at  the  strings  of  my 
heart.  Upon  coming  into  town,  the  sight  of  the  church 
spires  rising  above  the  houses  and  the  trees  as  witnesses  to  man's 
desire  for  God,  always  gave  me  inward  delight.  True,  relig- 
ion in  America  lacks  to  a  certain  extent  the  depth  of  Oriental 
mysticism;  yet  it  is  much  more  closely  related  than  in  the 
Orient  to  the  vital  issues  of  "the  life  which  now  is."  Often 
would  I  go  and  stand  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  street  from  a 
public-school  building  at  the  hour  of  dismissal  (and  this  pas- 
sion still  remains  with  me)  just  for  the  purpose  of  feasting 
my  eyes  on  seeing  the  pupils  pour  out  in  squads,  so  clean  and 
so  orderly,  and  seemingly  animated  by  all  that  is  noblest  in 
the  life  of  this  great  nation.  My  soul  would  revel  in  the 
thought  that  no  distinctions  were  made  in  those  temples  of 
learning  between  Jew  and  Gentile,  Protestant  and  Catholic, 
the  churched  and  the  unchurched;  all  enjoyed  the  equality 
of  privileges,  shared  equally  in  the  intellectual  and  moral 
feast,  and  drank  freely  the  spirit  of  the  noblest  patriotism. 


94  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN    THE   WRITINGS 


AN    IMMIGRANT    TELLS    HIS    STRUGGLES 
WITH    THE    ENGLISH    LANGUAGE 

My  struggles  with  the  English  language  (which  have  not 
yet  ceased)  were  at  times  very  hard.  It  is  not  at  all  difficult 
for  me  to  realize  the  agonizing  inward  struggles  of  a  person 
who  has  lost  the  power  of  speech.  When  I  was  first  com- 
pelled to  set  aside  my  mother-tongue  and  use  English  ex- 
clusively as  my  medium  of  expression,  the  sphere  of  my  life 
seemed  to  shrink  to  a  very  small  disk.  My  pretentious  pur- 
pose of  suddenly  becoming  a  lecturer  on  Oriental  customs, 
in  a  language  in  which  practically  I  had  never  conversed, 
might  have  seemed  to  any  one  who  knew  me  like  an  act  of 
faith  in  the  miraculous  gift  of  tongues.  My  youthful  desire 
was  not  only  to  inform  but  to  move  my  hearers.  Conse- 
quently, my  groping  before  an  audience  for  suitable  diction 
within  the  narrow  limits  of  my  uncertain  vocabulary  was 
often  pitiable. 

The  exceptions  in  English  grammar  seemed  to  be  more 
than  the  rules.  The  difference  between  the  conventional 
and  the  actual  sounds  of  such  words  as  "victuals"  and 
"colonel"  seemed  to  me  to  be  perfectly  scandalous.  The  let- 
ter c  is  certainly  a  superfluity  in  the  English  language;  it  is 
never  anything  else  but  either  k  or  s.  In  my  native  language, 
the  Arabic,  the  accent  is  always  put  as  near  the  end  of  the 
word  as  possible;  in  the  English,  as  near  the  beginning  as 
possible.  Therefore,  in  using  my  adopted  tongue,  I  was 
tossed  between  the  two  extremes  and  very  often  "split  the 
difference"  by  taking  a  middle  course.  The  sounds  of  the 
letters,  v,  p,  and  the  hard  g,  are  not  represented  in  the 
Arabic.  They  are  symbolized  in  transliteration  by  the  equiv- 
alents of  /,  b,  and  k.  On  numerous  occasions,  therefore,  and 
especially  when  I  waxed  eloquent,  my  tongue  would  mix 
these  sounds  hopelessly,  to  the  amused  surprise  of  my  hear- 
ers. I  would  say  "coal"  when  I  meant  "goal,"  "pig  man" 
for  "big  man,"  "buy"  for  "pie,"  "ferry"  for  "very,"  and  vice 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  95 

versa.  For  some  time  I  had,  of  course,  to  think  in  Arabic 
and  try  to  translate  my  thoughts  literally  into  English,  which 
practice  caused  me  many  troubles,  especially  in  the  use  of  the 
connectives.  On  one  occasion,  when  an  American  gentle- 
man told  me  that  he  was  a  Presbyterian,  and  I,  rejoicing  to 
claim  fellowship  with  him,  sought  to  say  what  should  have 
been,  "We  are  brethren  in  Christ,"  I  said,  "We  are  brothers, 
by  Jesus."  My  Presbyterian  friend  put  his  finger  on  his  lip 
in  pious  fashion,  and,  with  elevated  brows  and  a  most  sym- 
pathetic smile,  said,  "That  is  swearing!" 

But  in  my  early  struggles  with  English,  I  derived  much 
negative  consolation  from  the  mistakes  Americans  made  in 
pronouncing  my  name.  None  of  them  could  pronounce  it 
correctly — Rih-ba-ny — without  my  assistance.  I  have  been 
called  Rib-beny,  Richbany,  Ribary,  Laborny,  Rabonie,  and 
many  other  names.  An  enterprising  Sunday  School  superin- 
tendent in  the  Presbyterian  Church  at  Mansfield,  Ohio,  in- 
troduced me  to  his  school  by  saying,  "Now  we  have  the 
pleasure  of  listening  to  Mr.  Rehoboam!"  The  prefixing  of 
"Mr."  to  the  name  of  the  scion  of  King  Solomon  seemed  to 
me  to  annihilate  time  and  space,  and  showed  me  plainly  how 
the  past  might  be  brought  forward  and  made  to  serve  the 
present. 


96  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN   THE   WRITINGS 


EDWARD    ALFRED    STEINER 

None  of  our  immigrant  authors  has  written  with  more  earnestness 
of  America  and  things  American  than  Edward  A.  Steiner,  who 
was  born  in  Vienna,  Austria,  in  1866.  Unlike  the  average  immi- 
grant, before  coming  to  the  United  States  he  had  received  consid- 
erable education  in  the  public  schools  of  his  native  city,  in  the  gym- 
nasium at  Pilsen,  Bohemia,  and  at  the  University  of  Heidelberg. 
After  passing  through  most  of  the  hardships  incident  to  the  life  of 
an  alien,  he  was  graduated  from  the  Oberlin  Theological  Seminary 
and  was  ordained  a  minister  of  the  Congregational  Church.  Several 
years  were  then  spent  in  pastoral  work,  and  in  1903  he  was  elected 
to  the  Chair  of  Applied  Christianity  at  Grinnell  College,  Iowa.  He 
is  widely  known  both  as  a  lecturer  and  an  author,  and  among  his 
numerous  books  may  be  mentioned  "On  the  Trail  of  the  Immigrant," 
1906;  "Against  the  Current,"  1910;  "From  Alien  to  Citizen,"  1914; 
"Introducing  the  American  Spirit,"  1915;  "Nationalizing  America," 
1916;  "Confession  of  a  Hyphenated  American,"  1916.  This 
last  voices  the  sensitiveness  so  commonly  felt  by  Americans  of 
foreign  and  particularly  German  birth  in  the  face  of  much  unreas- 
onable suspicion  and  prejudice  prior  to  and  at  the  entrance  of  the 
United  States  into  the  European  War.  "Nationalizing  America"  is 
perhaps  his  most  searching  book ;  for  in  this  almost  every  Ameri- 
can institution  is  scrutinized,  the  State,  the  Church,  the  school,  and 
the  industrial  life  being  examined  in  their  relation  to  the  immi- 
grant. 

Selections  from  two  chapters  of  this  book  ("The  Stomach  Line" 
and  "History  and  the  Nation")  have  been  combined  under  one  title, 
"Industrialism  and  the  Immigrant."  "The  Criminal  Immigrant"  is 
taken  from  chapter  fourteen  of  the  autobiographical  volume,  "From 
Alien  to  Citizen."* 


•Copyright,  by  Fleming  H.  Revell  Co.     Reprinted  by  permission  of 
the  publishers. 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  97 


THE   CRIMINAL    IMMIGRANT 

To  recall  prison  experiences  is  not  pleasant,  and  would  not 
be  profitable,  if  this  were  merely  a  narration  of  what  hap- 
pened to  one  individual,  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago.  Condi- 
tions are  not  sufficiently  changed,  either  in  judicial  procedure 
or  in  methods  of  punishment,  to  make  this  account  of  historic 
importance.  Its  value  lies  only  in  the  fact  that  no  changes 
have  occurred,  and  that  my  experience  then  is  still  the  com- 
mon fate  of  multitudes  of  immigrants,  who  swell  the  crim- 
inal records  of  their  race  or  group,  and  are  therefore  looked 
upon  with  dislike  and  apprehension. 

The  jail  in  which  I  found  myself  was  an  unredeemed, 
vermin-infested  building,  crowded  by  a  motley  multitude  of 
strikers  and  strike  breakers, — bitter  enemies  all,  their  animos- 
ity begotten  in  the  elemental  struggle  for  bread,  and  hating 
one  another  with  an  unmodified,  primitive  passion.* 

The  strikers  had  the  advantage  over  us,  for  they  were 
more  numerous  and  were  acquainted  with  the  ways  of 
American  officials.  This  gave  them  the  opportunity  (which 
they  improved)  to  make  it  unpleasant  for  the  "Hunkies." 

The  straw  mattress  upon  which  1  slept  the  first  night  was 
missing  the  second ;  salt  more  completely  spoiled  the  mixture 
called  by  courtesy  coffee,  and  the  only  thing  which  saved  me 
from  bodily  hurt  was  the  fact  that  there  was  no  spot  on  me 
which  was  not  already  suffering. 

I  mention  without  malice  and  merely  as  a  fact  in  race 
psychology,  that  the  Irish  were  the  most  cruel  to  us,  with  the 
Germans  a  close  second,  while  the  Welsh  were  not  only  in- 
offensive, but  sometimes  kind. 

One  of  them,  David  Hill — smaller  than  the  ordinary 
Welshman,  but  with  the  courage  of  his  Biblical  namesake — 
stood  between  me  and  a  burly  Irish  Goliath  who  wanted  to 
thrash  this  particular  "furriner,  who  came  over  here  to  take 

•The  author  was  working  as  a  miner  at  Connellavllle,  Pennsylvania, 
when  the  strike  and  general  riot  occurred,  during  which  he  was  beaten 
Into  unconsciousness  and  hustled  off  to  jail. 


98  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN   THE   WRITINGS 

away  the  bread  from  the  lips  of  dacent,  law-abiding  Ameri- 
cans." 

The  jailer  maintained  no  discipline  and  heeded  no  com- 
plaints. His  task  was  to  keep  us  locked  up;  the  bars  were 
strong  and  the  key  invariably  turned. 

The  strikers  gradually  drifted  from  the  jail,  being  bailed 
out  or  released,  and  I  was  not  sorry  to  see  them  go. 

Poor  food,  vermin  of  many  varieties  and  the  various  small 
tortures  endured,  were  all  as  nothing  to  me  compared  with 
the  fact  that  for  more  than  six  weeks  I  was  permitted  to  be 
in  that  jail  without  a  hearing;  without  even  the  slightest 
knowledge  on  my  part  as  to  why  I  had  forfeited  my  liberty. 

From  the  barred  jail  window  I  could  see  the  workmen 
going  unhindered  to  their  tasks ;  on  Sunday  pastor  and  people 
passed,  as  they  went  to  worship  their  Lord  who,  too,  was 
once  a  prisoner.  None,  seemingly,  gave  us  a  thought  or  even 
responded  by  a  smile  to  the  hunger  for  sympathy  which  I 
know  my  face  must  have  expressed. 

My  letters  to  the  Austro-Hungarian  Consul  remained  un- 
answered, and  the  jailer  gave  my  repeated  questionings  only 
oaths  for  reply. 

The  day  of  my  hearing  finally  came,  and  I  was  dragged 
before  the  judge.  The  proceedings  were  shockingly  disor- 
derly, irreverent  and  unjust.  I  was  charged  with  shooting 
to  kill.  The  weapon  which  had  been  found  in  my  pocket 
was  the  revolver  bequeathed  me  by  the  dying  man  in  the 
Pittsburgh  boarding  house.  As  all  its  six  cartridges  were 
safely  embedded  in  rust,  the  charge  was  changed  to  "carry- 
ing concealed  weapons."  I  think  my  readers  will  agree 
with  me  that  the  sentence  of  one  hundred  dollars  fine  and 
three  months  in  the  county  jail  was  out  of  all  proportion  to 
the  offence. 

The  court  wasted  exactly  ten  minutes  on  my  case,  and 
then  I  was  returned  to  my  quarters  in  the  jail,  an  accredited 
prisoner.  Let  me  here  record  the  fact  that  I  carried  back 
to  my  cell  a  fierce  sense  of  injustice  and  a  contempt  for  the 
laws  of  this  land  and  its  officials;  feelings  that  later  ripened 
into  active  sympathy  with  anarchy,  which  at  that  time  occu- 


"**      fc^    OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  99 

pied  the  attention  of  the  American  people.  My  knowledge  of 
that  subject  came  to  me  through  old  newspapers  which 
drifted  as  waste  around  the  jail. 

In  all  those  months,  more  than  six,  for  my  fine  had  to  be 
worked  out,  or  rather  idled  out,  no  one  came  to  me  to  com- 
fort or  explain.  For  more  than  six  months  I  was  with 
thugs,  tramps,  thieves  and  vermin.  I  was  a  criminal  immi- 
grant, a  component  element  of  the  new  immigration  prob- 
lem. 

I  recall  all  this  now  in  no  spirit  of  vengeance;  as  far  as 
my  memory  is  concerned,  I  have  purged  it  of  all  hate.  I 
recall  my  experience  because  those  same  conditions  exist  to- 
day in  more  aggravated  form,  while  multitudes  of  ignorant, 
innocent  men  suffer  and  die  in  our  jails  and  penitentiaries. 

Since  then  I  have  visited  most  of  the  county  jails,  prisons 
and  penitentiaries  in  which  immigrants  are  likely  to  be  found. 
Intelligent  and  humane  wardens,  of  whom  there  are  a  few, 
have  told  me  that  more  than  half  the  alien  prisoners  are 
suffering  innocently,  from  transgressing  laws  of  which  they 
were  ignorant,  and  that  their  punishment  is  too  often  much 
more  severe  than  necessary. 

The  following  narration  of  several  incidents  which  re- 
cently came  under  my  observation  will  be  pardoned,  I  hope, 
when  their  full  import  is  seen. 

Not  long  ago  I  went  to  lecture  in  a  Kansas  town, — one 
of  those  irreproachable  communities  in  which  it  is  good  to 
bring  up  children  because  of  the  moral  atmosphere.  The 
town  has  a  New  England  conscience  with  a  Kansas  attach- 
ment. It  boasts  of  having  been  a  station  in  the  under- 
ground railway,  and  it  maintains  a  most  uncompromising  at- 
titude toward  certain  social  delinquencies,  especially  the  sale 
of  liquor.  , 

Upon  my  arrival  I  was  cordially  received  by  a  committee, 
and  one  of  its  members  told  me  that  the  jail  was  full  of 
criminal  foreigners — Greeks.  What  crimes  they  had  com- 
mitted he  did  not  know. 

Recalling  my  own  experience,  I  made  inquiries  and  found 
that  six  Greeks  were  in  the  county  jail.     They  had  been 


IOO  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN    THE   WRITINGS 

arrested  in  September  (it  was  now  March)  charged  with 
the  heinous  crime  of  having  gone  to  the  unregenerate  State 
of  Nebraska,  where  they  purchased  a  barrel  of  beer  which 
they  drank  on  the  Sabbath  day  in  their  camp  by  the  rail- 
road. 

Possibly  these  Greeks  were  just  ignorant  foreigners  and 
now  harbor  no  sense  of  injustice  suffered;  possibly  they  still 
think  this  country  "the  land  of  the  free  and  the  home  of  the 
brave."  They  may  even  be  ready  to  obey  its  laws  and  rev- 
erence its  institutions.  I  do  not  know  how  they  feel,  but  I 
do  know  this:  those  Greeks  were  kept  in  prison  for  break- 
ing a  law  of  which  they  were  ignorant,  and  even  if  they 
were  aware  of  its  existence  and  broke  it  knowingly,  the 
punishment  did  not  fit  the  crime. 

They  were  kept  as  criminals  and  regarded  as  criminals; 
they  were  unvisited  and  uncomforted ;  and  they  were  incar- 
cerated at  a  time  when  their  country  called  for  her  native 
sons  to  do  battle  against  the  Turk. 

Some  day  the  sense  of  injustice  suffered  may  come  to 
them,  and  they  will  ask  themselves  whether  every  man  in 
Kansas  who  drinks  beer  is  punished  as  they  were.  They  will 
wonder  why  real  criminals  go  free,  or  escape  with 
nominal  punishment.  I  venture  to  predict  that  in  some 
great  crisis,  when  this  country  needs  men  who  respect  her 
laws  and  love  her  institutions,  these  men,  and  multitudes  of 
others  who  have  suffered  such  injustices  as  they  have,  will 
fail  her. 

I  pleaded  for  those  imprisoned  Greeks  that  night,  and  my 
plea  was  effective.  The  just  judge  who  condemned  them 
pardoned  them;  but  so  just  was  he  that  the  fine  of  one  hun- 
dred dollars  each,  not  yet  paid,  was  left  hanging  over  them, 
and  to  their  credit  be  it  said,  they  remained  in  that  town 
and  paid  every  cent  of  it.  This  judge  no  doubt  knows  his 
New  Testament;  he  certainly  made  the  Greeks  pay  the 
"uttermost  farthing"  before  his  outraged  sense  of  justice  was 
appeased. 

Those  Greeks  spent,  together,  over  three  years  in  jail, 


OF  AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  IOl 

forfeited  more  than  fifteen  hundred  dollars  in  wages,  and 
lost  in  bodily  health  and  self-respect  beyond  calculation. 

Another  incident  occurred  last  spring  as  I  was  passing 
through  a  border  on  one  of  those  nerve-racking  coal  roads. 

At  a  small,  desolate  mining  village  a  group  of  men  en- 
tered the  car,  unwillingly  enough.  They  were  chained  to 
one  another  and  were  driven  to  their  seats  with  curses  and 
the  butt  of  a  gun.  They  were  Italian  miners,  part  of  that 
human  material  now  scattered  all  over  the  United  States, 
carried  by  something  swifter,  though  not  less  insistent  than 
the  glacial  movements  which  graved  the  beds  of  the  rivers 
and  shifted  so  much  of  earth's  original  scenery.  There  was 
some  danger  of  violence,  and  the  accompanying  minions  of  the 
law  held  back  the  angry  passengers.  There  was  scarcely  a 
moment,  however,  when  they  themselves  did  not  apply  some 
vigorous  measure  to  assure  themselves  that  three  undersized 
Southern  Italians,  chained  to  one  another,  should  not  escape 
them. 

The  car  was  uncomfortably  crowded  and  grew  more  so  at 
every  station ;  for  the  next  day  the  new  governor  was  to  be 
inaugurated  at  the  capital,  toward  which  our  train  was 
leisurely  travelling. 

I  had  some  difficulty  in  ethnologically  classifying  the  man 
who  shared  my  seat.  He  was  large,  the  colonel  and  major 
type,  although  his  head  was  rounder.  The  features,  too, 
were  of  a  different  cast,  his  speech  less  refined  and  his  man- 
ners less  gentle. 

He  wore  a  broad,  new  hat,  his  hair  was  long,  curling 
slightly,  and  he  had  an  air  of  special  importance,  the  cause 
of  which  I  discovered  later. 

"I  wonder  why  they  are  treating  those  poor  fellows  so 
roughly,"  I  audibly  soliloquized,  turning  to  him.  He  was 
studying  a  typewritten  document  and  evidently  did  not  relish 
the  interruption. 

"Is  that  any  of  your  business?"  he  asked,  punctuating  the 
short  sentence  with  a  liberal  supply  of  oaths. 

"Yes,   I   have  no  other  business,"   I   replied.     "I   travel 


102  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT    IX    THE    WRITINGS 

about  the  world  trying  to  find  out  why  we  people  treat  one 
another  as  we  do,  if  we  happen  to  be  of  different  races." 

"What  kind  of  business  is  that?"  looking  up  from  his 
manuscript  and  regarding  me  suspiciously. 

"Well,"  I  said,  "we  call  that  'Social  Psychology.'  " 

"That's  a  new  graft,"  he  replied  with  a  laugh.  "How 
much  is  there  in  it?" 

"A  little  money  and  a  great  deal  of  joy,"  I  said  with  an 
answering  smile. 

Then  he  folded  his  manuscript  and  made  ready  to  find  out 
more  about  my  "graft,"  which  I  proceeded  to  explain. 

"You  see,  from  the  beginning,  when  a  man  saw  another 
who  wasn't  just  like  him,  he  said:  'Will  he  kill  me  or  shall 
I  kill  him?'  Then  they  both  went  about  finding  out.  The 
man  who  survived  regarded  himself  as  the  greater  man,  and 
his  descendants  belonged  to  the  superior  race. 

"We  haven't  gone  much  beyond  that  point,"  I  continued. 
"We  hide  our  primitive  hate  under  what  we  proudly  call 
race  prejudice  or  patriotism,  but  it's  the  old,  unchanged  fear 
and  dislike  of  the  unlike,  and  we  act  very  much  as  the  sav- 
ages did  who  may  have  lived  here  before  the  glaciers  ploughed 
up  your  State  and  helped  to  manufacture  the  coal  you  are 
now  digging. 

"I  don't  know  you,"  I  went  on,  "but  I  am  pretty  sure 
that  you  feel  mean  toward  those  poor  'Dagoes'  just  because 
you  want  to  assert  your  superiority. 

"I  have  discovered  that  a  man  isn't  quite  happy  unless  he 
can  feel  himself  superior  to  something,  and  these  mountain 
folk  of  yours  take  those  mangy,  hungry  looking  dogs  along 
just  so  they  can  have  something  to  kick.    Am  I  right?" 

"Well,"  he  replied,  clearing  his  throat  and  straightening 
himself,  while  into  his  eyes  came  a  steel-like  coldness,  "you 
don't  mean  to  say  that  we  are  not  superior  to  these  Dagoes, 
these  Black  Hand  murderers?" 

"No,  I  am  not  ready  to  say  that  yet;  but  tell  me  about 
them.     Whom  did  they  kill,  and  how?" 

Then  he  told  me  the  story  and  he  knew  it  well,  for  he 
was  a  re-elected  State  official  now  going  to  be  sworn  in. 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  103 

There  was  a  coal  miners'  strike — rather  a  chronic  disease  in 
that  somewhat  lawless  State — and  the  militia  was  called  out. 
Violence  begat  violence,  and  one  of  the  militiamen,  standing 
guard  at  night,  was  killed  by  a  bullet,  fired  from  a  Winches- 
ter rifle  at  an  approximately  certain  distance. 

The  Italians  were  found  at  that  place  the  next  day,  were 
arrested,  and  were  now  on  their  way  to  the  county  seat  to 
be  tried. 

My  companion  evidently  had  found  my  "graft"  interest- 
ing, for  he  permitted  me  to  interview  the  Italians. 

None  of  them  knew  definitely  of  what  crime  they  were 
accused,  and  all,  of  course,  protested  their  innocence. 

None  of  them  had  served  as  soldiers  and  all  said  they 
were  unacquainted  with  the  use  of  firearms. 

When  we  reached  the  end  of  the  road  where  we  were  all 
admonished  to  change  cars  and  not  forget  our  parcels,  the 
officer  graciously  allowed  me  to  make  an  experiment.  The 
men  were  freed  from  their  shackles,  and  I  told  them  that  a 
high  and  mighty  official  was  watching  them  and  that  the 
best  marksman  of  the  group  would  find  favor  in  his  sight. 
They  were  then  in  turn  given  the  Winchester  rifle,  which 
they  handled  as  if  it  were  a  pickaxe.  They  did  not  know  how 
to  load  it,  and  after  it  was  loaded  for  them  and  I  asked  them 
to  fire,  they  fell  upon  their  knees  and  begged  to  be  per- 
mitted to  show  their  prowess  with  a  stiletto,  the  use  of 
which  they  understood.  Within  twenty-four  hours  additional 
testimony  was  furnished,  which  proved  beyond  doubt  that 
the  Italians  were  not  implicated  in  the  crime  with  which 
they  were  charged. 

I  felt  deeply  grateful  to  the  man  who  permitted  me  to 
intervene  in  their  behalf;  but  what  would  have  happened  if 
by  chance,  or  the  power  we  call  Providence,  I  had  not  been 
thrown  into  the  sphere  of  their  suffering?  Undoubtedly  they 
would  have  been  convicted  of  murder  and  paid  the  penalty 
for  a  crime  which  they  never  committed. 

Not  only  is  ignorance  of  our  laws  and  language  a  fruit- 
ful cause  of  the  delinquency  of  immigrants  and  their  children, 
but   the   venality   of  police   officials,   the   condition   of  our 


104  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN    THE   WRITINGS 

courts  and  prisons,  not  only  fail  to  inspire  respect,  but  con- 
tribute much  to  the  development  of  those  criminal  tendencies 
with  which  nature  has,  to  a  degree,  endowed  all  men.  .  .  . 

Fortunately,  I  left  the  county  jail  with  no  thirst  for  blood ; 
but  with  a  fiercer  passion  to  right  the  wrongs  under  which 
men  suffer,  and  that,  I  think,  was  my  one  purpose  in  life 
when  the  prison  door  closed  behind  me. 


OF  AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  105 


INDUSTRIALISM   AND   THE    IMMIGRANT 

We  talk  much  about  the  American  home,  which  is  even 
yet  the  basis  of  national  well-being,  although  many  of  its 
functions  are  abrogated.  The  home  still  determines  the 
good  or  ill  of  the  child,  and  through  him  the  good  or  ill  of 
the  nation.  Yet  we  permit  millions  of  people  to  work,  with 
no  chance  to  make  a  real  home. 

Children  there  will  be,  Nature  sees  to  that ;  but  what  kind 
of  children  can  be  begotten  in  our  slums  ? 

The  slums  in  America  are  as  much  a  national  disgrace  as 
they  are  a  national  menace.  The  gunmen  of  New  York 
were  bred  in  hovels  which  even  the  home-making  genius  of 
the  Jewish  people  could  not  turn  into  homes,  or  make  fit  for 
the  training  of  children  to  decent  living. 

You  who  go  slumming  to  see  the  sights,  and  turn  up  your 
sensitive  noses  at  the  bad  smells,  and  your  eyes  to  heaven, 
thanking  God  that  you  "are  not  as  other  men,"  must  not 
forget  that  the  vast  majority  of  our  foreign-born  workers  are 
compelled  to  live  as  they  do  by  economic  and  social  forces, 
which  they  cannot  control. 

You  remain  ignorant  of  the  brave  struggles  for  the  home, 
and  the  heroic  stand  for  virtue  behind  those  sooty  walls.  You 
know  nothing  of  the  fear  of  God,  the  desire  to  obey  His  law, 
and  the  love  of  their  country,  which  filters  in  to  those  recep- 
tive souls. 

The  growth  and  power  of  the  I.  W.  W.,  a  revolutionary 
organization  of  the  most  radical  type,  anti-national,  anti-re- 
ligious, repudiating  God  and  State  with  horrifying  blasphemy, 
were  made  possible  by  the  fact  that  our  industrial  leaders, 
our  so-called  "hard-headed  business  men,"  have  the  hard 
spot  in  their  hearts  and  a  very  soft  spot  in  their  heads. 

Of  all  the  blind  men  I  have  met,  the  blindest  are  those  far- 
sighted  ones  who  see  wealth  in  everything,  and  every  com- 
mon bush  aflame  with  gold,  and  see  nothing  else.  Blind 
they  are  to  their  own  larger  good,  blind  to  the  nation's  needs, 


106  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN    THE    WRITINGS 

blind  to  the  signs  of  the  times.  The  social  weal  of  our 
country  is  in  the  hands  of  the  most  unsocial.  .  .  . 

As  I  analyze  my  own  relation  to  the  nation  of  which  I 
am  as  much  a  part  as  if  I  had  been  born  under  its  flag,  I 
find  that  it  rests  itself  upon  the  feeling  of  gratitude.  Not  for 
the  bread  I  eat,  for  I  had  bread  enough  in  my  native  coun- 
try ;  not  for  the  comfort  of  home,  for  I  had  fair  comforts  be- 
fore I  came;  not  even  for  liberty  and  democracy  as  abstrac- 
tions, or  even  as  embodied  in  the  State ;  for  I  have  found  that 
freedom  is  within,  and  democracy  a  matter  of  attitude  to- 
wards one's  fellows. 

I  am  grateful  for  the  chance  I  have  had  here  to  develop 
unhampered  my  own  self,  for  a  certain  largeness  of  vision 
which  I  think  I  would  not  have  developed  anywhere  else ;  for 
the  richness  which  a  broad,  unhindered  contact  with  all  sorts 
and  conditions  of  men  has  brought  into  my  life. 

There  is  something  more  than  gratitude  in  my  heart  now. 
There  is  a  larger  sense  of  the  values  I  received  which  I  have 
not  yet  appropriated.  There  is  in  my  heart  a  sublime  pas- 
sion for  America.  Would  it  have  grown  into  the  burning 
flame  it  is,  if  1  had  always  worked  in  New  York's  sweat- 
shops ? 

If  I  had  been  beaten  by  New  York's  police?  If  I  had 
reared  my  family  in  a  tenement,  and  had  to  send  my  children 
to  work  when  they  should  have  played  and  studied? 

If  I  had  known  America  only  through  her  yellow  journal- 
ism, and  sensed  her  spirit  only  in  ward  elections?  I  do  not 
know. 

What  has  kept  me  from  becoming  an  Anarchist,  from  be- 
ing jailed  or  hanged  for  leading  mobs  against  their  despoilers, 
God  alone  knows.  His  guidance  is  as  unquestioned  as  it  is 
mysterious.  There  were  disclosed  to  me,  early  in  my  career, 
in  some  strange  way,  the  spiritual  values  latent  here.  In 
spite  of  the  gross,  granite-like  materialism  at  the  top,  I  dis- 
covered the  richness  of  the  heritage  left  by  the  fathers  of  this 
Republic;  in  spite  of  the  poverty  and  hardship  in  which  I 
had  to  share,  I  saw  here  the  fine  quality  of  its  vision ;  in 
spite  of  the  crudeness  of  its  blundering  ways,  all  the  love  a 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  107 

man  may  have  for  a  country  grew  in  my  heart,  and  changed 
only  in  growing  stronger.  Yet  I  am  not  in  the  mood  to  call 
to  account  those  toilers  whose  patriotism  is  less  fervent  than 
mine  and  whose  ideals  are  still  held  in  check  by  the  "stomach 
line." 

Editors  and  preachers,  teachers  and  capitalists,  with  all 
the  loud  if  not  mighty  host  of  us  who  are  yammering  about 
the  want  of  patriotism  among  the  masses,  and  the  weakness 
of  our  national  spirit ;  we  are  the  first  who  must  move  a  notch 
higher  in  our  love  of  country  and  above  the  "stomach  line." 
We  must  make  real  the  spiritual  ideals  for  which  this  country 
stands,  or  at  least  try  to  realize  them,  before  we  can  teach  the 
alien  and  his  children,  or  even  our  own,  the  meaning  of  liberty 
and  democracy.  Before  we  can  ask  them  to  die  for  our  coun- 
try we  shall  have  to  learn  to  live  for  it,  and  the  definite  task 
we  have  before  us  is  not  the  mere  idolatry  of  our  flag,  or  the 
making  of  shard  and  shell. 

To  provide  an  adequate  wage  for  our  men,  to  so  arrange 
our  industrial  order  that  there  shall  not  be  feverish  activity 
to-day,  and  idleness,  poverty,  bread  lines  and  soup  kitchens 
to-morrow.  To  make  working  conditions  tolerable,  to  pro- 
vide against  accidents  and  sickness,  unemployment  and  old 
age,  and  to  be  true  to  the  life  about  us. 

These  are  national  factors,  essential  to  the  making  of  an 
effective  national  state  in  our  industrial  age.  Capital,  in 
common  with  labor,  must  learn  how  to  lend  itself  to  the 
national  purpose ;  for  we  have  come  upon  a  time,  or  the  time 
has  come  upon  us,  when  we  must  learn  how  to  melt  all 
classes,  all  sections  and  all  races  into  a  final  unit.  This  is 
the  time  to  touch  the  hearts  and  gain  the  confidence  of  all 
the  people  by  a  high  regard  for  all,  so  that  together  we  may 
turn  our  faces  towards  our  ultimate  goal.  .  .  . 

The  Commonwealth  Steel  Company  of  Granite  City,  Illi- 
nois, one  of  those  remarkable  corporations  with  a  soul,  whose 
business  is  rooted  in  the  ideal  of  service,  found  its  foreign 
laborers  quartered  in  what  was  called  "Hungry  Hollow." 
This  company  so  exemplified  the  American  spirit  of  fair  play 
that,  when  the  foreign  employees  were  aroused  to  proper  civic 


108  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN    THE   WRITINGS 

pride,    they    rebaptized    "Hungry    Hollow"    into    "Lincoln 
Place,"  because  Lincoln's  spirit  was  manifested  towards  them. 

The  Lincoln  Progressive  Club,  as  they  named  their  organi- 
zation, has  as  its  immediate  aim  the  study  of  the  English 
language,  and  Americanization. 

I  wish  there  might  be  erected  in  every  industrial  center  a 
statue  of  Abraham  Lincoln  for  masters  and  men  to  see  and 
reverence,  thus  being  reminded  of  their  duty  towards  each 
other  and  towards  their  common  country. 

What  a  people  we  could  become  if  the  immortal  words  he 
spoke  were  graven  upon  the  pedestal  of  such  a  statue,  "With 
malice  towards  none,  with  charity  towards  all,"  ...  to  greet 
our  eyes  daily,  and  to  challenge  our  conduct. 

The  history  of  the  United  States  since  the  Civil  War  has 
not  yet  been  written,  for  it  is  the  story  of  an  epoch  just  clos- 
ing. It  marks  the  sudden  leaping  of  a  people  into  wealth, 
if  not  into  power;  the  fabulous  growth  of  cities,  the  end  of 
the  pioneer  stage,  the  beginning  of  an  industrial  period,  and 
the  pressure  of  economic  and  social  problems  towards  their 
solution. 

At  least  twenty  millions  of  people  have  come  full  grown 
into  our  national  life  from  the  steerage,  the  womb  out  of 
which  so  many  of  us  were  born  into  this  newer  life.  Most  of 
us  came  to  build  and  not  to  destroy;  we  came  as  helpers  and 
not  exploiters;  we  brought  virtues  and  vices,  much  good  and 
ill,  and  that,  not  because  we  belonged  to  this  or  the  other  na- 
tional or  racial  group,  but  because  we  were  human. 

It  is  as  easy  to  prove  that  our  coming  meant  the  ill  of  the 
nation  as  that  it  meant  its  well-being.  To  appraise  this  fully 
is  much  too  early ;  it  is  a  task  which  must  be  left  to  our  chil- 
dren's children,  who  will  be  as  far  removed  from  to-day's 
scant  sympathies  as  from  its  overwhelming  prejudices. 

The  great  war  has  swung  us  into  the  current  of  world 
events,  and  it  ought  to  bring  us  a  larger  vision  of  the  forces 
and  processes  which  shape  the  nations  and  make  their  peoples. 
As  yet  we  are  thinking  hysterically  rather  than  historically, 
and  the  indications  are  that  we  may  not  learn  anything,  nor 
yet  unlearn,  of  which  we  have  perhaps  the  greater  need. 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  IOg 

Thus  far  we  have  become  narrower  rather  than  broader, 
for  the  feeling  towards  our  alien  population  is  growing  daily 
less  generous,  and  our  treatment  of  it  less  wise. 

Nor  am  I  sure  in  what  wisdom  consists;  the  situation  is 
complex ;  for  we  are  the  Balkan  with  its  national,  racial  and 
religious  contentions.  We  are  Russia  with  its  Ghetto,  its 
Polish  and  Finnish  problem.  We  are  Austria  and  Hungary 
with  their  linguistic  and  dynastic  difficulties.  We  are  Africa 
and  Asia;  we  are  Jew  and  Gentile;  we  are  Protestant  and 
Greek,  and  Roman  Catholic.  We  are  everything  out  of 
which  to  shape  the  one  thing,  the  one  nation,  the  one  people. 

Yet  I  am  sure  that  we  cannot  teach  these  strangers  the 
history  of  their  adopted  country,  and  make  it  their  own,  un- 
less we  teach  them  that  our  history  is  theirs  as  well  as  ours, 
and  that  their  traditions  are  ours,  at  least  as  far  as  they 
touch  humanity  generally,  and  convey  to  all  men  the  bless- 
ings which  come  from  the  struggle  against  oppression  and  su- 
perstition. 

In  their  inherited,  national  prejudices,  in  their  racial  hates, 
in  their  tribal  quarrels,  we  wish  to  have  no  share,  except  as 
we  hope  to  help  them  forget  the  old  world  hates  in  the  new 
world's  love. 

None  of  us  who  have  caught  a  vision  of  what  America  may 
mean  to  the  world  wish  to  perpetuate  here  any  one  phase  of 
Europe's  civilization  or  any  one  national  ideal. 

Although  our  institutions  are  rooted  in  English  history, 
though  we  speak  England's  language  and  share  her  rich  heri- 
tage of  spiritual  and  cultural  wealth,  we  do  not  desire  to  be 
again  a  part  of  England,  or  nourish  here  her  ideals  of  an 
aristocratic  society. 

In  spite  of  the  fact  that  for  nearly  three  hundred  years  a 
large  part  of  our  population  has  been  German,  and  that  our 
richest  cultural  values  have  come  from  Germany,  in  spite  of 
her  marvellous  resources  in  science,  commerce  and  govern- 
ment, we  do  not  care  to  become  German,  and  I  am  sure  that 
Americans  of  German  blood  or  birth  would  be  the  first  to 
repudiate  it,  should  Germany's  civilization  threaten  to  fasten 
itself  upon  us. 


110  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN    THE    WRITINGS 

We  do  not  wish  to  be  Russian,  in  spite  of  certain  values 
inherent  in  the  Slavic  character,  nor  do  we  desire  to  be 
French. 

We  do  crave  to  be  an  American  people — and  develop  here 
an  American  civilization ;  but  if  we  are  true  to  the  manifold 
genius  of  our  varied  peoples,  we  may  develop  here  a  civiliza- 
tion, richer  and  freer  than  any  of  these,  based  upon  all  of 
them,  truly  international  and  therefore  American. 

Historians  tell  us  that  the  history  of  the  United  States 
illumines  and  illustrates  the  historic  processes  of  all  ages  and 
all  people. 

To  this  they  add  the  disconcerting  prophecy  that  we  are 
drifting  towards  the  common  goal,  and  that  our  doleful 
future  can  be  readily  foretold.  We  have  had  our  hopeful 
morning,  our  swift  and  brilliant  noon,  and  now  the  dark  and 
gruesome  end  threatens  us. 

I  will  not  believe  this  till  I  must. 

I  will  not,  dare  not  lose  the  hope  that  we  can  make  this 
country  to  endure  firmly,  to  weather  the  storm,  or  at  least 
put  off  the  senility  of  old  age  to  the  last  inevitable  moment. 

When,  however,  the  end  comes,  as  perhaps  it  must,  I  pray 
that  we  may  project  our  hopes  and  ideals  upon  the  last  page 
of  our  history,  so  that  it  may  read  thus:  This  was  a  state, 
the  first  to  grow  by  the  conquest  of  nature,  and  not  of  nations. 
Here  was  developed  a  commerce  based  upon  service,  and  not 
upon  selfishness ;  a  religion  centering  in  humanity  and  not  in 
a  church. 

Here  was  maintained  sovereignty  without  a  sovereign,  and 
here  the  people  of  all  nations  grew  into  one  nation,  held  to- 
gether by  mutual  regard,  not  by  the  force  of  law. 

Here  the  State  was  maintained  by  the  justice,  confidence 
and  loyalty  of  its  people,  and  not  by  battleships  and  arma- 
ments. When  it  perished,  it  was  because  the  people  had  lost 
faith  in  God  and  in  each  other. 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  III 


GEORGE   A.   GORDON 

The  Old  South  Church,  Boston,  has  had  a  prominent  and  patriotic 
part  in  American  history  since  early  days.  It  was  a  Puritan  immi- 
grant and  layman  of  this  church,  Samuel  Sewall,  who  was  one  of 
the  first  to  speak  out  against  human  slavery  in  his  tract,  "The  Sell- 
ing of  Joseph";  and  it  was  in  this  church  that  the  five  patriotic  ad- 
dresses, published  in  1917  under  the  title,  "The  Appeal  of  the  Na- 
tion," were  delivered  by  George  Angier  Gordon,  pastor  of  the 
church  since  1884.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Gordon,  who  was  born  in  Scot- 
land in  1853  and  received  his  common  school  education  there,  came 
to  the  United  States  in  1871.  In  1881  he  obtained  the  degree  A.B. 
from  Harvard.  He  has  since  served  his  Alma  Mater  frequently  in 
the  capacity  of  University  preacher,  and  many  Harvard  men  will 
recall  his  inspiring  talks  in  the  college  chapel.  In  the  following 
selection  he  manifests  the  poignant  homesickness,  the  sterling  loyalty, 
and  the  noble  aspiration  so  common  in  the  writings  of  the  immigrant. 


112  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN   THE   WRITINGS 

THE  FOREIGN-BORN  AMERICAN  CITIZEN: 

COST,  PRIVILEGE  AND  DUTIES  OF  HIS 

CITIZENSHIP 

The  Republic  of  the  United  States  is  in  fact  a  nation  of 
immigrants,  a  nation  of  aliens.  All  have  made  the  great 
migration,  all  have  come  hither  from  other  parts  of  the 
earth.  The  only  difference  among  Americans  is  that  some 
came  earlier  while  others  came  much  later,  indeed  as  it  were 
yesterday,  to  these  shores.  The  only  aboriginal  American 
is  the  Indian.  This  historic  fact  should  be  forever  borne  in 
mind.  We  came  hither  first  or  last,  across  the  ocean,  and 
from  the  ends  of  the  earth. 

There  is  however  a  ground  of  distinction  among  Ameri- 
cans ;  they  are  rightly  divided  into  native  citizens  and  citizens 
foreign-born.  The  native  citizen  has  grown  into  the  being 
of  the  society  that  his  alien  ancestors  helped  to  form.  He 
has  in  his  blood  an  American  inheritance ;  his  instincts  have 
been  fed  with  native  food ;  he  is  alive  to  nothing  else  as  he 
is  to  the  American  Republic.  We  foreign-born  Americans 
acknowledge  his  distinction,  we  rejoice  in  his  happiness,  we 
count  ourselves  fortunate  to  stand  with  him  in  the  great  com- 
munion of  free  citizens.  We  ask  him,  in  his  turn,  to  read  in 
the  story  of  our  migration  the  struggle  of  his  ancestors;  we 
remind  him  of  what  we  left  behind,  what  we  brought  with 
us,  and  at  what  cost  we  gained  our  American  citizenship. 

In  the  words  that  I  have  chosen  as  my  text*  we  have  a 
foreign-born  Roman  citizen.  Exactly  where  he  was  born  we 
do  not  know;  we  do  know  that  he  was  born  outside  Roman 
citizenship.  He  was,  therefore,  an  adopted  citizen  of  the 
Roman  Empire,  and  to  this  he  refers  in  the  words  that  I 
have  quoted,  "With  a  great  sum  obtained  I  this  citizenship." 

There  are  three  implications  in  these  words:  the  cost  of 
citizenship  to  this  man;  the  privilege  of  citizenship  to  him; 

*And  the  chief  captain  answered,  With  a  great  sum  obtained  I  this 
citizenship. — Acts  xxii.  28. 


OF  AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  113 

his  duty  as  a  Roman  citizen.  These  three  points  will  be  a 
convenient  guide  to  us  in  our  discussion  of  the  subject  of  the 
morning, — "The  Foreign-born  American  Citizen." 

1.  First  of  all,  then,  there  is  the  cost  to  this  man  of  citi- 
zenship in  the  Roman  Empire.  He  obtained  it  with  a  great 
sum;  to  get  it  made  him  poor. 

There  are  few  among  native-born  American  citizens  who 
understand  the  sacrifice  made  by  the  foreign-born  citizens  of 
the  heritage  of  childhood  and  boyhood  in  the  wonder  world 
of  early  life.  There  is  the  bereavement  of  the  early  mystic, 
unfathomable  touch  of  nature  that  comes  to  one  only  through 
one's  native  land.  Never  again  to  see  the  sun  rise  and  set  over 
the  dear  old  hills,  with  the  hero's  mantle  like  the  bloom  of 
the  heather  resting  upon  them,  and  the  shadow  of  an  im- 
memorial race,  is  truly  a  great  bereavement.  Never  again  to 
see  the  green  pastures,  with  the  flocks  quietly  feeding  in 
them,  under  the  shade  of  the  plot  of  trees  here  and  there 
mercifully  provided  by  the  humanity  of  previous  generations, 
nor  to  hear  the  music  of  the  river  that  has  sung  into  being 
and  out  of  being  forty  generations  of  human  lives ;  never  again 
to  see  the  fields  covered  with  corn,  nor  to  hear  the  reaper's 
song  among  the  yellow  corn ;  never  again  to  see  the  light  that 
welcomed  you  when  you  were  born,  that  smiled  on  you  when 
you  were  baptized,  that  went  with  you  to  school,  that 
watched  your  play,  that  constituted  the  beautiful,  the  glorious 
environment  of  your  early  days ;  never  again  to  hear  the  song 
of  the  native  birds,  the  skylark  in  the  morning,  the  mavis  at 
nightfall,  and  the  wild  whistle  of  the  blackbird  under  the 
heat  of  noon  from  his  thorny  den, — all  this  is  simply  inex- 
pressible bereavement.  Nature  is  inwoven  with  the  soul  in 
its  earliest  years;  its  beauty,  its  wildness,  its  soul  becomes 
part  of  the  soul  of  every  deep-hearted  human  being,  and 
never  again  can  nature  be  seen  as  she  was  seen  through  the 
wonder  of  life's  morning. 

It  is  this  spell  of  nature  over  the  young  soul  that  gives  its 
exquisite  pathos  to  Hood's  world-familiar  melody : 


114  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN    THE   WRITINGS 

"I  remember,  I  remember, 

The  house  where  I  was  born. 
The  little  window  where  the  sun 

Came  peeping  in  at  morn; 
He  never  came  a  wink  too  soon, 

Nor  brought  too  long  a  day, 
But  now  I   often  wish  the  night 

Had  borne  my  breath  away! 


"I  remember,  I  remember, 

The  fir  trees  dark  and  high ; 
I  used  to  think  their  slender  tops 

Were  close  against  the  sky: 
It  was  a  childish  ignorance, 

But  now  'tis  little  joy 
To  know  I'm  farther  off  from  heav'n 

Than  when  I  was  a  boy." 


There  it  is,  the  mystic,  divine  influence  of  nature  through 
the  atmosphere  of  the  country  of  one's  birth ;  every  immigrant 
to  this  country  makes  that  great  surrender. 

There  is,  too,  the  early  humanity.  You  go  down  town, 
you  who  are  native-born  American  citizens,  and  every  day 
you  meet  those  whom  you  have  known  from  birth,  your 
earliest  playmates  and  schoolmates,  and  those  who  went  to 
college  with  you,  who  entered  business  with  you,  who  fought 
side  by  side  with  you  through  the  Great  War,  who  loved 
what  you  loved  in  early  life,  revered  what  you  revered, 
laughed  at  what  you  laughed  at  and  felt  as  you  felt  over  the 
glory  and  the  tenderness  of  existence.  You  do  not  know  what 
they  have  left  behind  them  who  never  see  a  face  that  they 
knew  in  childhood,  who  will  never  meet  again,  till  time  is  no 
more,  a  schoolmate  or  an  early  companion,  who  will  never 
gather  again  in  the  old  home  with  father  and  mother  and 
brothers  and  sisters;  only  the  most  favored  have  had  a 
fugitive  glance,  like  looking  at  a  telegraph  pole  from  an 
express  train,  of  those  dear,  early  faces.  There  is  a  whole 
world  of  bereavement  of  early,  tender,  beautiful  humanity  on 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  115 

the  part  of  all  who  come  here.    And  this  again  you  hear  in 
those  two  verses  in  "Auld  Lang  Syne" : — 

"We  twa  hae  run  about  the  braes, 

And  pu'd  the  Rowans  fine, 
But  we've  wander'd  monie  a  weary  foot 

Sin'  auld  lang  syne. 

"We  twa  hae  paidl'd  in  the  burn 

From  morning  sun  till  dine, 
But  seas  between  us  braid  hae  roar'd 

Sin'  auld  lang  syne." 

/ 

There  is  one  other  surrender :  there  is  the  suffering  of  ad- 
justment in  a  new  country.  The  first  year  I  spent  in  Boston, 
from  July,  1871,  to  considerably  more  than  July,  1872,  I 
conceived  my  condition  to  be  as  near  that  of  the  spirits  in 
hell  as  anything  I  could  well  imagine!  To  be  in  a  city 
where  nobody  knew  you,  where  you  knew  nobody,  where  so 
many  wanted  to  take  advantage  of  the  "greenhorn,"  to  laugh 
at  him  if  he  ever  grew  for  a  moment  a  bit  sentimental,  was 
not  exactly  heaven.  Many  and  many  a  time  I  went  down  to 
the  wharf  to  see  the  ships  with  their  white  sails,  written  all 
over  with  invisible  tidings  from  the  far,  sunny  islands  left 
behind,  and  if  I  had  not  been  restrained  by  shame  and  pride  I 
should  have  gone  home.  That  is  the  experience  of  Scandi- 
navian, English,  Scotch,  Irish,  Teuton,  Slav,  Armenian, 
Syrian,  and  Latin;  the  great  bereavement  of  nature  and  of 
early  humanity  is  deepened  by  the  sorrow  of  readjustment  in 
a  foreign  land.  "With  a  great  sum  obtained  we  this  citizen- 
ship"; few  understand  it,  few  indeed.  Foreign-born  Ameri- 
can citizenship  is  preceded  by  a  vast  sacrifice,  and  you  never 
can  understand  that  sort  of  citizenship  till  you  take  account 
of  this  really  profound  experience. 

2.  The  next  thing  in  the  experience  of  the  chief  captain 
was  his  privilege  as  a  Roman  citizen.  His  station  and  bear- 
ing and  power  told  of  that  privilege.  He  was  a  military 
tribune  in  the  legion  stationed  in  Jerusalem;  he  had  risen  to 


Il6  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN    THE   WRITINGS 

important  command  and  power  impossible  for  him,  inaccess- 
ible to  him  if  he  had  not  obtained  citizenship. 

America  has  been  called  the  land  of  opportunity.  Look  at 
this  fact  in  three  directions  only,  since  time  will  not  allow 
more.  The  common  workman  may  become,  by  intelligence,  by 
diligence  and  by  fidelity,  the  master  workman.  Cast  your  eyes 
over  the  land  to-day  and  assemble  the  master  workmen,  and 
you  will  find  that  the  vast  majority  of  them  have  risen  from 
the  position  of  ordinary  workmen  to  the  chief  places  in  their 
trade  and  calling.  Such  a  chance  for  ascension  in  a  broad 
way  for  all  competent  men,  in  the  Old  World,  is  a  simple 
impossibility.  The  chance  does  not  exist  there.  Men  rise 
there  by  talent  and  by  luck,  by  talent  and  by  favoritism.  But 
here  in  a  broad  and  magnificent  manner  they  rise  by  talent 
and  industry,  fidelity  and  force;  here  as  nowhere  else,  they 
have  a  chance  to  work  out  what  is  in  them. 

Consider  this  in  the  things  of  the  intellect.  The  Old 
World  calls  us  an  uneducated  race.  It  is  true  that  we  have 
not  many  great  scholars;  the  reason  is  that  we  are  engaged 
with  immediate  pressing  problems;  we  apply  intelligence  to 
living  issues  which  in  other  lands  is  applied  to  the  Genitive 
and  the  Accusative  and  the  Dative  cases  of  the  Latin  and 
Greek  languages.  When  we  look  backward  and  consider  the 
provision  made  for  the  intellect  of  the  nation  during  the  last 
fifty  years,  we  claim  that  there  is  no  parallel  to  it  in  any 
country  on  which  the  sun  shines.  More  money  has  gone  to 
found  colleges  and  schools  and  universities  for  men  and  for 
women,  open  to  all  talent  from  ocean  to  ocean  and  from  the 
Canadian  border  to  the  Gulf,  than  was  ever  dedicated  to 
education  in  the  same  length  of  time  in  the  history  of  man- 
kind. Not  only  is  there  provision  for  the  regulars,  but  also 
for  the  irregulars ;  all  sorts  of  evening  schools  flourish  in  our 
cities  where  the  first  teachers  of  the  community  are  available 
for  talented  and  aspiring  youth  of  slender  means.  Men  are 
practicing  medicine  and  law ;  they  are  in  the  ministry  and  in 
other  professions,  usually  called  learned,  who  never  saw  the 
inside  of  a  college  or  a  university,  who  have  obtained  an  edu- 
cation in  what  is  called  an  irregular  way,  from  and  by  the 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  117 

very  men  who  are  teaching  in  these  regular  academic  institu- 
tions. 

Let  me  remind  you  of  the  abundant  hospitality,  the  won- 
derful generosity  of  the  American  people  toward  aspiring 
youth.  Talent  which  would  be  ignored  in  Great  Britain, 
promise  which  would  be  sneered  at  in  every  continental 
country  in  Europe,  is  here  discovered  and  encouraged  to  de- 
velop into  power.  This  is  a  phenomenon  of  which  we  must 
never  lose  sight,  the  chance  here  in  the  United  States  for  a 
man  to  be  intellectually  all  that  it  is  possible  for  him  to  be. 
The  best  teachers  may  often  be  seen  here  wielding  the  edu- 
cational power  of  history  and  the  arts  to  train  the  youth  to 
whom  college  is  an  impossibility,  for  service  requiring  edu- 
cated powers,  in  his  day  and  generation. 

There  is  to  be  noted  the  opportunity  in  the  way  of  charac- 
ter and  moral  influence  that  comes  to  citizens  of  the  United 
States.  What  does  that  mean?  The  chance  to  change  and 
improve  the  law  of  the  land,  the  chance  for  a  man  to  change 
and  improve  the  government  of  the  United  States,  the 
chance  to  modify,  in  the  line  of  humanity,  the  social  feeling 
of  the  United  States.  And  freedom  is  here  the  condition  of 
all ;  every  man  who  complains  that  things  are  not  what  they 
should  be  has  a  chance  by  his  vote  to  remedy  the  abuse  and  to 
take  another  step  toward  the  ideal. 

Here  again  there  is  something  new,  measuring  it  against 
the  whole  people.  We-  are  dupes  and  fools  when  we  allow 
ourselves  to  be  ruled  by  groups  in  this  country;  we  are  free 
men,  with  the  power  in  our  hands.  If  we  have  moral  ideals 
of  our  own,  and  moral  character,  we  can  so  use  them  as  to 
lift  the  character  of  the  land  in  which  we  live. 

3.  Finally,  there  was  the  duty  of  the  tribune  as  a  Roman 
citizen.  Paul  was  about  to  be  bound  and  tortured,  without 
trial,  when  he  appealed  to  the  chief  captain,  "Is  it  lawful  for 
you  to  scourge  a  man  that  is  a  Roman  and  uncondemned  ?" 
This  startled  the  man.  "Tell  me,  art  thou  a  Roman  ?  Good 
heavens,  this  will  never  do!  I  am  pledged  to  do  my  duty  I 
Get  off  those  shackles  and  set  the  man  free  and  guard  his 
life !"    There  was  the  man's  sense  of  his  duty. 


Il8  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN   THE   WRITINGS 

What  is  the  duty  of  foreign-born  American  citizens? 
First  to  learn  the  English  language  and  to  prefer  it  to  all 
other  tongues  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  That  tongue  comes 
in  the  splendor  of  a  June  day;  it  breaks  over  life  like  a  June 
sunrise,  with  an  atmosphere,  tone,  beauty,  and  power  which 
for  Americans  must  ever  be  unapproachable.  Let  no  Ameri- 
can citizen  hug  his  foreign  tongue,  go  into  the  closet  with  it 
and  shut  out  the  light  of  the  great  English  language  which 
carries  all  our  ideals  as  Americans!  The  very  vessel  of  the 
Lord  it  is,  in  which  American  freedom  is  carried, — the  lan- 
lauge  of  Shakespeare  and  Milton,  the  incomparable  free  man  ; 
the  language  of  Bacon  and  Burke  and  Washington  and  Ham- 
ilton and  Webster  and  Lincoln.  This  tongue  consecrates  the 
immigrant  who  would  be  a  citizen ;  he  never  can  be  a  citizen 
of  the  United  States  without  that,  never.  This  is  the  tongue 
that  carries  in  a  unique  translation  the  literature  of  Israel; 
the  Bible  is  the  maker  of  free  peoples. 

Next,  we  foreign-born  American  citizens  must  read  the 
story  of  the  Revolution  into  our  blood.  What  is  the  signifi- 
cance of  the  Revolution  for  the  foreign-born  American  citi- 
zen? These  men  were  Englishmen  or  the  sons  of  English- 
men; they  loved  the  British  Isles  better  than  any  portion  of 
the  earth's  surface,  except  their  own  Colonies;  they  loved 
them  with  an  inexpressible  love.  Yet  when  it  came  to  ques- 
tion of  principle  they  stood  out  and  said,  "We  must  be  free ; 
the  Colonies,  or  the  LTnited  States,  first !"  You  recall  Daniel 
Webster's  splendid  eloquence  here : — 

"On  this  question  of  principle,  while  actual  suffering  was 
yet  afar  off,  they  raised  their  flag  against  a  power  to  which, 
for  purposes  of  foreign  conquest  and  subjection,  Rome  in  the 
height  of  her  glory  is  not  to  be  compared, — a  power  which 
has  dotted  over  the  surface  of  the  whole  globe  with  her  pos- 
sessions and  military  posts,  whose  morning  drumbeat,  follow- 
ing the  sun,  and  keeping  company  with  the  hours,  circles  the 
earth  with  one  continuous  and  unbroken  strain  of  the  martial 
airs  of  England." 

Against  that  power  to  which  they  were  as  nothing,  against 
that  lovely  land  of  their  origin  they  stood  out  when  it  was 


OF  AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  I  )j| 

a  question  of  their  own  independence  and  their  own  man- 
hood. 

That  applies  to  every  foreign-born  American  citizen  to- 
day,— Saxon,  Celt,  Scandinavian,  Teuton,  Slav,  Latin, 
Syrian,  bond  and  free.  Learn  the  lesson  of  the  Revolution. 
This  country  will  have  no  hands  upon  it,  from  any  origin, 
anywhere  outside  of  itself.  Learn  the  lesson  of  the  Civil 
War;  the  nation  that  set  to  work  to  keep  its  integrity  as  a 
political  whole,  to  keep  its  integrity  as  a  human  whole,  to 
fight,  as  it  had  done  a  foreign  dominion,  an  evil  genius  inside 
its  own  border.  There  again  is  a  vast  lesson  to  all  of  us  who 
are  foreign-born.  Once  again  we  should  store  in  memory 
and  ponder  in  clearest  conscience  and  intelligence  the  great 
ideas,  the  great  political  ideas  of  America  as  they  are  exhib- 
ited in  Washington,  in  Hamilton  the  Nationalist  and  in  Jeffer- 
son the  State  Rights'  patriot;  and  again  in  Webster  and 
Calhoun,  in  Lincoln  and  the  Confederate,  and  as  they  issued 
at  last  in  a  true  conception  of  State  freedom  in  a  sisterhood 
of  States  that  constitutes  a  great  nation.  These  things  should 
be  part  of  the  common  store  of  knowledge  of  the  adopted 
citizen.  They  are  the  great  forces  that  have  moved  this 
country  from  its  earliest  beginning,  and  that  have  lifted  it 
into  power  and  renown. 

America  must  be  first;  cherish  your  love  for  the  old  coun- 
try, your  tenderness, — a  man  does  not  need  to  hate  his  mother 
because  he  loves  his  wffe,  but  it  is  his  duty  to  stand  by  his 
wife  even  against  his  mother.  What  kind  of  a  country  should  , 
we  have  if  every  citizen,  when  trouble  comes,  should  prefer 
in  loyalty  the  land  of  his  birth!  What  a  confused  mob  of  a 
country  we  should  have!  Duty  overrides  origin,  tradition, 
sentiment.  Here  and  here  alone  is  our  supreme  and  nv 
violable  obligation. 

I  often  think  that  this  great  country  of  ours  is  ultimately 
to  be  the  deepest-hearted  and  the  brightest-minded  nation  of 
the  world.  Hither  come,  with  sore  hearts,  burdened  human- 
ity and  quickened  intelligence,  the  elect  from  all  nations.  You 
look  at  them  when  they  land,  and  you  laugh.  If  you  had 
been  in  Quebec  when  I  landed,  perhaps  you  would  not  have 


120  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT    IN   THE    WRITINGS 

wanted  me  as  your  minister!  The  elect  from  all  nations, 
parts  of  a  splendid  orchestra, — violin,  flute,  cornet,  drum, 
trumpet,  and  a  score  of  other  instruments,  all  pouring  forth 
their  genius  to  make  the  great,  swelling,  soul-stirring  sym- 
phony of  this  mighty  nation.  Thus  from  Scandinavia,  Ger- 
many, France,  Italy,  Russia,  Armenia,  Greece;  from  Eng- 
land, Ireland,  and  Scotland  they  come, — all  are  here  with 
great  souls  to  make  a  new  and  greater  America.  Out  of  this 
composite  land,  this  Pentecostal  nation, — sometimes  it  seems 
to  me  minus  the  Holy  Ghost, — this  nation  gathered  from 
every  people  under  the  heaven,  rags  and  tatters  and  dirt  and 
all,  I  believe  the  Eternal  Spirit  will  evolve  and  establish  the 
most  gifted,  the  most  far-shining  and  the  mightiest  people  in 
the  world.    God  grant  that  our  dream  may  come  true ! 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  121 


SERAPHIM   G.   CANOUTAS 

An  American  Greek  who  has  traveled  extensively  throughout  the 
United  States,  and  has  mingled  freely  with  his  people  and  therefore 
understands  their  aspirations  and  needs,  is  Seraphim  G.  Canoutas, 
member  of  the  Boston  Bar  and  author  of  the  "Greek-American 
Guide"  and  the  "Adviser  for  Greeks  in  America." 

The  following  plain  recital  of  Mr.  Canoutas's  struggle  and 
achievement  is  worthy  of  presentation  here,  because  it  shows  that 
what  the  immigrant  seeks  for  in  America  he  may  find,  and  that 
back  of  real  success  and  contentment  lies  the  will  to  serve.  He  says 
in  a  letter  to  the  editor: — 

"I  arrived  in  this  country  fifteen  years  ago,  and  my  hardships 
during  the  first  five  to  seven  years  cannot  be  briefly  told.  Still,  I 
am  glad  that  I  have  suffered  so  much.  I  was  born  in  a  little  vil- 
lage of  Greece,  in  1873  or  1874;  I  do  not  know  the  exact  date  of 
my  birth.  There  were  no  records  kept  in  those  days,  and  my  par- 
ents were  illiterate.  There  was  no  school  in  the  little  village;  no 
church  either.  I  went  to  school  to  another  village  at  a  distance  of 
about  three  miles.  I  do  not  know  how  I  managed  to  go  to  what 
they  call  Gymnasium  in  Greece,  and  finally  to  the  University  at 
Athens — a  very  uncommon  thing  for  a  poor  peasant's  son.  I  grad- 
uated from  the  University  of  Athens,  Law  Department,  in  1898,  and 
in  1899  I  received  my  license  to  practise  law.  But  a  poor  young 
man  in  those  days  had  no  chance  whatever  to  get  any  clients  in  Greece, 
except  by  selling  his  conscience  and  his  principles  to  some  politician. 
I  left  Greece  immediately  after  my  admission  to  the  bar  and  settled 
in  Constantinople,  Turkey,  where  I  started  to  practise  law  before 
the  Consular  Court  of  Greece.  (Each  nation  maintains  separate 
courts  for  its  citizens  or' subjects  in  Turkey.)  I  practised  law  there 
for  over  five  years  and  was  doing  very  well.  But  I  wanted  to  see 
other  countries;  there  was  something  there  which  I  did  not  like.  I 
went  to  France,  Italy,  Austria,  and  at  last  I  decided  to  come  to 
America.  When  I  arrived  in  America,  I  found  myself  wholly  dis- 
couraged. Nobody  could  give  me  advice  what  to  do.  There  were 
very  few  educated  Greeks,  fifteen  years  ago,  in  this  country,  and 
they  did  not  know  how  to  help  others;  they  rather  discouraged  me. 
I  knew  not  a  word  of  Englsh;  but,  knowing  French,  I  managed  to 
learn  some  English  in  a  few  months.  Two  years  after  my  arrival 
I  started  to  write  a  book  for  the  new  immigrants  under  the  title  of 
"Greek-American  Guide,"  giving  them  as  much  information  about 
the  country  as  I  knew.  But  books  do  not  pay.  Although  everybody 
appreciated  the  usefulness  of  my  book,  the  purchasers  were  very  few. 

"In   1909  to  1910  I  made  a  trip  all  over  the  United  States  and 


123  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN   THE   WRITINGS 

Canada  to  gather  information  about  my  countrymen  from  personal 
experience.  Finally  I  met  a  good  American  who  told  me  how  I 
could  study  law  in  this  country  and  be  admitted  to  the  bar.  In  1912 
I  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  Boston,  and  have  practised  law  since; 
but  I  like  social  work  better  than  law.  I  have  continued  to 
lecture  to  Greeks  throughout  this  State  and  in  New  England;  and 
I  feel  a  great  satisfaction  that  I  have  been  able  to  do  some  good  for 
my  countrymen,  as  well  as  for  my  adopted  country,  which  offers  the 
greatest  opportunities  to  everybody,  although  it  takes  a  long  time 
for  a  foreigner  to  find  out." 

In  1918  Mr.  Canoutas  published  his  "Hellenism  in  America,"  dedi- 
cating the  book  "to  the  Greeks  in  America  in  general,  but  those 
serving  under  the  glorious  American  flag  in  particular  ...  in  per- 
petual remembrance  of  their  devotion  to  our  beloved  country  and 
their  heroic  sacrifices  for  the  cause  of  democracy."  From  this  volume 
the  following  sensible  advice  on  Americanization  is  quoted. 


OF  AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  133 


AMERICANIZATION:    ITS    PRINCIPLES    AND 
MEANING 

It  was  a  wrong  practice,  in  my  opinion,  and  against  the 
principles  of  true  democracy,  for  certain  Americans  to  induce 
foreigners  to  become  American  citizens  quickly  if  they  wished 
"to  make  more  money  and  to  get  better  jobs."  Because  love 
of  mere  money  and  better  jobs,  above  all  other  things,  leads 
to  materialism,  plutocracy,  bureaucracy  and  aristocracy,  and 
not  to  true  democracy. 

Candidates  for  admission  to  citizenship  of  a  democratic 
country  should  be  taught  to  understand  and  appreciate  the 
superiority  and  the  beauty  of  its  democratic  principles  instead 
of  being  promised  "better  jobs  and  more  money."* 

When  a  man  or  woman  is  inspired  by  those  high  and  \r 
noble  ideas  and  principles  stated  in  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, and  repeated  by  such  unselfish  and  magnanimous 
heads  of  a  Republic  as  Lincoln  and  Wilson,  and  feels  them 
and  applies  them,  we  can  say  that  person  has  been  influ- 
enced by  Americanism  or  is  Americanized.  But  unfortu- 
nately a  tendency  prevails  lately  to  confuse  the  word  "Ameri- 
canization" with  the  word  "naturalization."  There  is  noth- 
ing more  erroneous  than  to  consider  every  naturalized  person 
as  Americanized,  or  to  accept  as  a  general  proposition  that  a 
person  not  naturalized  cannot  be  Americanized.  Naturaliza- 
tion is  simply  a  matter  of  form,  while  Americanization  re- 
fers to  a  person's  heart  and  soul  and  mind.  A  naturalized 
American  citizen  who  has  not  been  inspired  by  the  lofty 
principles  which  Americanism  stands  for,  but  who  has  been 
induced  to  acquire  American  citizenship  for  some  material 
profit,  bears  the  same  relation  to  the  State  as  a  hypocrite 
bears  to  the  Church.  For  this  reason  I  have  always  been 
astonished  to  hear  Americans,  even  among  the  best  statesmen 
and  educators,  encouraging  wholesale  naturalization  before 

♦This  and  the  two  following  paragraphs  are  part  of  an  address  given 
at  an  Americanization  meeting  held  in  Attleboro.  Massachusetts,  1m 
1917. 


124  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN    THE   WRITINGS 

they  become  sure  of  the  Americanization  of  the  applicants. 
What  has  the  State  or  the  nation  to  gain  from  the  man  who 
is  induced  by  the  petty  politician  to  become  a  citizen  because 
it  pays?  What  has  the  State  to  profit  by  me,  for  instance, 
for  being  an  American  citizen  if  I  am  not  Americanized? 
On  the  contrary,  it  is  dangerous,  because  in  a  serious  crisis, 
like  the  present  one,  I  may  use  my  citizenship  as  a  shield  in 
defence  of  my  un-American  conduct.  Common  sense  there- 
fore requires  that  the  foreigner  should  not  be  given  that  pow- 
erful weapon  before  we  are  sure  that  he  will  use  it  in  defend- 
ing his  fellow-citizens  and  American  institutions,  and  not  in 
destroying  them. 

Prudence  requires  us  to  educate  the  foreigner  and  thor- 
oughly Americanize  him,  if  he  appreciates  Americanism,  be- 
fore admitting  him  to  citizenship.     But  this  education  and 
Americanization  cannot  be  carried  out  successfully  by  words 
or  preaching  alone.    We  must  show  to  the  foreigners  by  ourV    / 
example,  by  acts  and  deeds,  that  we  ourselves  stand  for  Ameri-  [ 
canism  and  apply  the  American  ideals  in  our  daily  life,  in  our  \ 
every-day  contact  with  foreigners.  ] 

If  Americans  look  down  with  contempt  upon  the  immi-     ' 
grant,  because  he  is  poor,  uneducated,  or  cursed  with  certain 
faults  which  he  acquired  while  living  in  a  poor  or  ill-governed 
country,  they  cannot  make  him  believe  that  America  stands 
for  democracy,  justice  and  general  brotherhood.  .  .  . 

When  Americans,  in  their  struggle  to  instruct  the  for- 
eigners, have  acquired  for  their  own  part  a  better  knowledge 
of  the  characteristics  of  each  race,  when  they  rightly  attribute 
the  faults  of  foreigners  to  the  painful  conditions  under  which 
they  lived  in  their  own  country,  when  they  patiently  bring  to 
light  the  better  qualities  of  those  whom  they  aspire  to  educate, 
then  that  unity  so  desirable,  so  necessary  for  this  great  nation, 
will  be  perfected.  Then  there  will  be  no  more  "foreigners," 
but  all  races  will  be  one  people,  offering  their  best  efforts  to 
the  land  in  which  they  have  equal  obligations  and  equal 
rights. 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  125 


STEFANO  MIELE 

That  one  should  come  to  America  for  the  sole  purpose  of  making 
money,  as  the  author  of  the  following  selection  frankly  states  he  did, 
may  seem  an  unworthy  motive ;  but,  after  all,  it  is  not  essentially 
different  from  the  impulse  that  causes  the  country-bred  American 
boy  to  seek  the  larger  cities  for  what  he  thinks  will  be  greater 
financial  opportunities.  Motives,  in  the  final  analysis,  must  be 
judged  in  large  part  by  their  issues  and  results. 

This  young  Italian,  ambitious  to  become  a  lawyer  and  finding  it 
impossible  in  Italy  to  get  employment  with  an  opportunity  to  study, 
decided  to  try  his  luck  in  America,  where  he  was  willing  to  "shovel 
coal,"  "wash  dishes,"  or  "do  anything  to  get  up.  In  a  little  more 
than  five  years  after  landing  at  Ellis  Island  he  was  admitted  to  the 
New  York  bar. 

The  following  selection  is  reprinted  from  his  article,  "America  as 
a  Place  to  Make  Money,"  published  in  the  issue  of  The  World's 
tVork  for  December,  1920. 


126  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN   THE   WRITINGS 


SOME    OBSTACLES   TO   AMERICANIZATION 

I  was  about  twenty  years  old  when  I  first  thought  of  going 
to  America.  But  it  is  not  so  easy  to  leave  one's  native  land : 
it  was  not  until  three  years  later  that  I  said  good-by  to  my 
father  and  mother  and  our  neighbors.  I  did  not  think  for  a 
moment  that  it  was  for  the  last  time — I  was  only  going  to 
America  to  make  money  and  then  return  to  Baiano  and  the 
old  folks. 

My  father  gave  me  a  little  money  so  that  I  could  buy  a 
second-class  ticket.  But  I  was  young;  I  was  starting  on  my 
first  big  adventure;  and — in  Naples  my  money  went,  this 
way,  that  way — I  came  in  the  steerage.  It  was  no  great 
hardship.  My  fellow-passengers  were  Italians,  most  of  them 
laborers,  men  used  to  hard  work.  They  were  very  happy — 
laughing,  singing,  playing — full  of  dreams,  ambitions. 

Then  came  Ellis  Island! 

Every  one  crowded — discomfort — lice — dirt — harshness — 
the  officers  shouting  "Come  here,"  "Go  there,"as  though  they 
were  driving  animals.  And  then  the  uncertain  period  of  de- 
tention— sometimes  a  week,  sometimes  two,  three,  or  even 
four  weeks — it  is  as  though  a  man  were  in  prison.  Ellis 
Island  does  not  give  the  immigrant  a  good  first  lesson  in 
Americanization. 

America  wants  the  immigrant  as  a  worker;  but  does  it 
make  any  effort  to  direct  him,  to  distribute  him  to  the  places 
where  workers  are  needed?  No;  it  leaves  the  immigrant  to 
go  here,  there,  any  place.  If  the  immigrant  were  a  horse  in- 
stead of  a  human  being,  America  would  be  more  careful  of 
him;  if  it  loses  a  horse,  it  feels  it  loses  something;  if  it  loses 
an  immigrant,  it  feels  it  loses  nothing.  At  any  rate,  that  is 
the  way  it  seems  to  the  immigrant;  and  it  strengthens  his 
natural  disposition  to  settle  among  people  of  his  own  race. 

A  man  needs  to  be  a  fighter  to  come  to  America  without 
friends.  I  was  more  fortunate  than  many:  I  had  a  brother 
in  America.     He  worked  in  a  private  bank.     He  met  me 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  127 

when  I  landed  and  took  me  to  his  home  in  Brooklyn.  I 
looked  for  a  job  for  about  a  month.  I  tried  to  get  work  on 
the  Italian  newspapers;  I  tried  to  get  work  in  a  law  office. 
Finally  a  friend  took  me  to  a  Jewish  law  office,  and  I  was 
employed — I  was  to  get  25  per  cent,  of  the  fees  from  any 
clients  that  I  brought  in.  I  stayed  there  two  months  and  got 
$5.  Three  months  after  I  arrived  in  New  York  I  was  given 
the  kind  of  a  place  that  I  had  looked  for  in  vain  in  my  native 
land — one  that  would  enable  me  to  support  myself  and 
study  my  chosen  profession.  I  was  given  a  place  on  an 
Italian  religious  newspaper.  I  worked  from  eight  in  the  morn- 
ing to  six  in  the  evening,  and  attended  the  night  course  of 
the  New  York  Law  School. 

It  was  about  August  when  I  landed  in  America,  and 
already  there  was  election  talk.  (It  was  the  year  McClellan 
ran  for  Mayor.)  I  met  some  of  the  Italian- American  poli- 
ticians. It  is  said  that  I  have  a  gift  for  oratory.  The  poli- 
ticians asked  what  would  be  my  price  to  talk  in  the  Italian 
sections  of  the  city.  I  said  that  I  did  not  want  anything.  I 
made  speeches  for  McClellan,  and  I  have  made  speeches  in 
every  campaign  since. 

That  was  one  of  the  first  things  that  struck  me  in  America 
— that  every  one  working  in  politics  was  working  for  his 
own  pocket.  Another  thing  that  also  amazed  me  was  that 
most  of  the  men  elected  to  an  office,  in  which  they  are  sup- 
posed to  deliberate  and  legislate,  were  in  reality  only  figure- 
heads taking  orders  from  some  one  else.  They  had  no  inde- 
pendence, no  individuality.  Another  discovery  was  that  the 
Italians  with  most  political  influence  were  men  of  low  mor- 
ality, of  low  type.  Then  I  discovered  the  reason:  the  poli- 
ticians needed  repeaters  and  guerillas,  and  that  was  why  "the 
boss  had  to  be  seen"  through  a  saloon-  or  dive-keeper. 

A  thing  that  seemed  very  strange  was  the  way  the  Amer- 
ican newspapers  magnified  crime  in  Italian  districts,  how  they 
made  sensational  stories  out  of  what  were  really  little  happen- 
ings, how  they  gave  the  Italians  as  a  people  a  character  for 
criminality  and  violence.  No  less  strange  was  the  way  the 
Italian  newspapers  answered  the  American  press.    They  were 


128  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN    THE   WRITINGS 

both  building  up  a  barrier  of  prejudice.  If  I  were  to  judge 
America  through  the  American  newspapers,  I  would  not 
have  become  an  American  citizen;  or  if  I  could  know 
America  only  through  the  Italian- American  newspapers,  I 
would  say  that  the  Americans  are  our  enemies. 

It  must  be  frankly  admitted,  however,  that  there  is  a 
change  in  the  second  generation,  a  change  that  is  too  fre- 
quently not  for  the  better.  As  I  have  said,  the  majority  of 
Italian  immigrants  come  from  the  rural  districts  of  Italy, 
and,  because  there  is  no  policy  of  distribution,  most  of  them 
settle  in  the  big  cities.  They  are  not  prepared  to  meet  the 
situation  presented  in  a  big  industrial  centre.  They  think 
to  apply  the  same  principle  in  bringing  up  children  that  had 
been  applied  in  the  little  village  or  on  the  farm  in  Italy. 
They  let  the  children  run  loose.  And  in  the  streets 
of  the  crowded  tenement  districts  the  children  see  graft, 
pocketpicking,  street-walking,  easy  money  here,  easy  money 
there;  they  see  the  chance  to  make  money  without  working. 
The  remedy  is  to  be  found  in  distributing  the  newly  arrived 
immigrants. 

Most  of  what  I  have  said  has  been  of  the  faults  of  Amer- 
ica. I  have  spoken  of  them  because  they  are  things  that  hold 
back  Americanization. 

America  has  been  good  to  me.  I  have  prospered  here  as  I 
could  not  have  prospered  in  Italy.  I  came  to  make  money  and 
return;  I  have  made  money  and  stayed.  A  little  more 
than  five  years  after  I  had  landed  at  Ellis  Island 
I  was  admitted  to  the  New  York  bar.  I  have  already 
had  greater  success  than  I  dreamed,  when  I  left  Italy, 
that  I  should  have.  And  I  look  forward  to  still  greater  suc- 
cess. For  me,  America  has  proved  itself,  and  promises  to 
continue  to  prove  itself,  the  land  of  opportunity,  but  I  have 
not  forgotten  Italy — it  is  foolish  to  tell  any  Italian  to  forget 
Italy.  I  say  Italy ;  but  for  me,  as  for  the  others,  Italy  is  the 
little  village  where  I  was  raised — the  little  hills,  the  little 
church,  the  little  garden,  the  little  celebrations.  I  am  forty 
years  old,  but  Christmas  and  Easter  never  come  around  but 
what  I  want  to  return  to  Baiano.     In  my  mind  I  become  a 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  129 

little  child  again.  But  I  know  enough  to  realize  that  I  see 
all  those  scenes  from  a  distance  and  with  the  eye  of  child- 
hood. 

But  even  if  I  wanted  to  return  to  Italy,  my  children  would 
not  let  me.  America  is  their  country.  My  father  is  dead.  I 
have  brought  my  mother  here.  When  an  Italian  brings  his 
parents  to  America,  he  is  here  to  stay. 

America  is  a  wonderful  nation.  But  we  make  a  mistake 
if  we  assume  that  the  Anglo-Saxon  is  the  perfect  human  be- 
ing. He  has  splendid  qualities,  but  he  also  has  faults.  The 
same  thing  is  true  of  the  Latins.  The  Anglo-Saxon  is  pre- 
eminently a  business  man,  an  executive,  an  organizer,  ener- 
getic, dogged.  But  in  the  Anglo-Saxon's  civilization  the 
Latin  finds  a  lack  of  the  things  that  go  to  make  life  worth 
living.  I  remember  the  returned  Italians,  the  "Americans," 
that  I  used  to  see  at  Baiano:  they  had  made  money  in 
America  and  were  prosperous  and  independent,  but  they  had 
also  lost  something — a  certain  light-heartedness,  a  joy  in  the 
little  things — the  old  jests  no  longer  made  them  laugh.  The 
Latin  has  the  artistic,  the  emotional  temperament,  a  gift  for 
making  little  things  put  sunshine  into  life,  a  gift  for  the 
social  graces.  If  the  Latin  could  get  the  qualities  that  the 
Anglo-Saxon  has,  and  give  to  the  Anglo-Saxon  those  that  he 
lacks, — if  all  the  nationalities  that  make  up  America  could 
participate  in  this  give-and-take  process, — then  we  would 
have  a  real  Americanization. 


130  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT  IN   THE   WRITINGS 


JOHN    KULAMER 

John  Kulamer  was  born  on  May  3,  1876,  at  Spisske  Podhradie, 
Spisska  Zupa,  Czecho-Slovak  Republic,  and  came  to  this  country  in 
1891,  alone.  In  June,  1909,  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  Alle- 
gheny County,  Pennsylvania. 

In  an  article,  entitled  "Americanization:  the  Other  Side  of  the 
Case,"  contributed  to  the  Atlantic  Monthly,  March,  1920,  he  says: 
"Although  born  in  far-off  Czecho-Slovakia,  under  the  shadow  of  the 
snow-capped  Tatra,  I  can  without  boasting  say  that  I  yield  to  no 
one  in  my  loyalty  to  the  Stars  and  Stripes;  and  if  I  differ  in  my 
views  as  to  the  methods  to  be  used  in  Americanizing  those  who,  like 
me,  were  born  in  other  countries,  I  do  it  out  of  love  for  my  adopted 
country,  and  because  I  am  anxious  to  see  these  efforts  crowned  with 
success." 

Mr.  Kulamer  has  favored  us  with  the  following  essay,  in  which  he 
further  presents  his  ideas  on  this  subject. 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  131 


THE    AMERICAN    SPIRIT   AND 
AMERICAN  IZATION 

No  matter  how  uncouth  in  appearance  the  immigrant  when  < 
he  sets  foot  on  American  soil,  the  criminal  fleeing  from  the 
hands  of  justice  excepted,  there  burns  in  his  soul  an  intense 
love  for  the  country  of  his  nativity,  inherited  from  generations 
of  his  ancestors ;  the  more  primitive  his  heart,  the  simpler  and 
stronger  is  this  love.  He  may  have  come  to  this  country  only 
to  earn  sufficient  money  to  relieve  his  wants  at  home  or  to  en- 
large his  means  of  living,  or  he  may  have  come  here  as  to  a 
land  of  promise  of  whose  great  opportunities  and  larger  free- 
dom he  has  heard,  still  his  heart  remains  in  the  land  of  his 
birth  where  the  ashes  of  his  forefathers  are  resting  and  to 
which  the  memories  of  his  happiest  childhood  days  are  cling- 
ing. Leaving  his  home-nest,  forsaking  friends  and  family 
and  turning  his  face  to  a  strange  land  to  mix  with  people 
whose  customs  and  language  he  knows  not,  is  a  thrilling  and 
tragic  adventure  to  every  immigrant.  And  it  is  well  that  his 
soul  is  so  constituted,  because  he  has  the  capacity  to  become  a 
true  patriot.  Your  cosmopolite  is  of  different  stuff;  he  is 
callous  and  incapable  of  those  noble  sentiments  which  urge 
the  patriot  to  sacrifice  even  his  life  for  his  country,  either  of 
birth  or  adoption.  A  man  who  pays  no  homage  to  any  land  is 
incapable  of  harboring  those  feelings  of  brotherly  love  and 
kinship  on  which  the  solidarity  of  a  nation  rests.  If  Ameri-  1 
canizers  wish  to  wean  the  immigrant  from  the  old  to  the 
new,  they  must  have  genuine  respect  for  his  feelings  and 
not  wound  them;  he  must  be  wooed,  he  cannot  be  forced. 

What  is  the  object  of  this  Americanization  which  is  so 
much  talked  about  and  on  which  so  much  energy  and  money 
is  spent  ?  Is  it  simply  to  wipe  out  the  difference  between  the 
customs  and  habits  of  the  older  and  newer  settlers;  or  is  it 
to  amalgamate  the  various  human  elements  into  one  homo- 
geneous mass,  into  one  nation?     If  it  is  the  former,  it  is 


132  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN    THE   WRITINGS 

wasted  energy;  time  will  accomplish  it.  If  it  is  the  latter, 
then  the  aliens  must  be  considered  as  human  beings  whose 
souls  are  made  of  the  same  material  as  those  of  the  Pilgrim 
Fathers.  Nations  do  not  appear  on  the  earth  spontaneously; 
they  are  the  result  of  historical  growth,  lasting  for  centuries. 
Many  factors  exert  their  influences  upon  a  nation  in  the 
formative  stage.  Stop  immigration,  if  you  can  get  along  with- 
out it,  and  in  another  generation  the  inhabitants  of  this  coun- 
try will  be  such  Americans  as  America  will  have  made  them. 
If  they  should  not  turn  out  to  be  true  Americans,  it  will  be 
America's  fault.  Even  now  the  children  of  alien  parents 
speak  the  same  language,  dress  the  same  way,  dance  the  same 
dances,  sing  the  same  songs,  have  the  same  good  qualities  and 
the  same  faults  as  the  children  whose  ancestors  came  here 
sooner.  If  you  want  to  convert  the  old  folks  into  Americans, 
then  it  is  necessary  to  handle  the  situation  with  tact.  Love  is 
a  tender  plant ;  it  does  not  take  root  easily,  and  the  least  in- 
clement weather  will  blast  it ;  but  it  is  very  sturdy  when  full 
grown,  nothing  less  than  a  thunderbolt  will  shatter  it.  Fur- 
thermore, it  is  of  a  spiritual  essence,  and  money  cannot  buy  it. 

To  succeed  in  this  purpose  it  is,  first  of  all,  necessary  to 
study  each  nationality  separately.  The  very  fact  that  all  of 
them  are  treated  alike  is  detrimental.  It  is  unfair  to  class 
them  all  alike.  They  all  have  their  good  and  bad  qualities; 
and  justice  demands  that  the  latter  be  not  attributed  to  those 
who  do  not  possess  them.  There  is  not  one  nationality  that 
would  admit  its  inferiority  to  the  others,  and  every  one  of 
them  considers  itself  equal  to,  if  not  better  than,  many  others. 
Consequently,  to  be  classed  with  races  looked  down  upon  is  a 
humiliation  to  which  no  one  with  self-respect  will  submit 
without  protest.  This  is  a  fact  which  must  not  be  lost  sight 
of;  it  is  rooted  in  human  nature.  It  is  further  necessary  to 
study  the  habits,  customs,  prejudices  and  inclinations  of  every 
nationality  separately,  so  that  such  as  are  too  deeply  rooted 
may  not  be  violently  antagonized. 

Take,  for  example,  the  matter  of  language.  The  Swede  or 
the  Spaniard  may  not  object  to  being  forced  by  law  to  learn 
English,  because  in  his  mother  country  this  question  never 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  1 33 

arose,  it  did  not  enter  into  his  daily  life.  It  is  different  with 
the  Slovak  or  the  Pole,  whose  soul  was  stirred  to  its  very 
depths  because  the  Magyar  or  the  Prussian  wanted  by  law  to 
force  a  strange  tongue  on  him.  It  was  a  tradition  with  him 
to  resist  such  an  attempt ;  he  looked  upon  it  as  an  oppression  in 
his  mother  country,  and  he  is  likely  to  look  upon  it  in  the 
same  light  here.  The  conditions  in  Europe  and  here  may  be 
different;  he  may  be  justified  in  objecting  there  and  not  here; 
but  his  mind  is  habituated  to  opposing  the  ruling  powers  in 
their  efforts  to  force  upon  him  a  strange  language.  A  com- 
mon workingman  is  not  used  to  psychological  self-analysis  or 
to  studying  archaeology;  he  is  controlled  mainly  by  his 
impulses.  He  will  note  only  that  he  is  required  to  submit 
here  to  laws  which  he  considered  oppressive  and  tyrannical  in 
the  old  country. 

The  glories  and  advantages  of  this  country  should  not  be 
fed  to  the  immigrant  in  excessive  doses,  but  presented  tact- 
fully. He  is  liable  to  look  upon  it  as  an  attempt  to  humiliate 
him,  as  unwarranted  boasting.  It  is  not  difficult  to  pick  flaws 
in  the  armor  of  American  complacency.  Every  man  is  a  hero- 
worshipper  at  heart,  and  every  man  has  his  childhood  heroes 
to  whom  he  clings.  Judged  by  an  absolute  standard,  if  there 
is  such  a  standard,  the  American  heroes  may  stand  on  a  higher 
plane ;  but  if  rude  hands  are  placed  upon  the  childhood  heroes 
of  the  alien  he  is  likely  to  resent  it.  The  skies  are  just  as 
blue,  the  fields  are  carpeted  just  as  beautifully  with  flowers 
and  the  nights  are  illuminated  with  the  same  glorious  stars  on 
the  Eastern  as  on  the  Western  Hemisphere.  The  majority  of 
the  aliens  enjoyed  more  of  these  beauties  at  home  than  they 
do  in  the  mines  and  smoke-infested  atmosphere  of  the  indus- 
trial American  cities.  It  is  true  that  they  earn  more  money 
here  in  dollars  and  cents;  but  they  work  harder  for  it  and 
sometimes  under  the  most  cruel  taskmasters. 

Teaching  aliens  the  English  language,  American  customs, 
ideals,  political  institutions  and  history,  will,  of  course,  go  a 
great  way  in  making  them  formal  Americans,  and,  in  some 
cases,  it  may  awaken  in  them  a  love  for  their  new  home ;  but 
it  is  indispensably  necessary  that  in  their  daily  contact  with 


134  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN    THE   WRITINGS 

the  older  Americans  they  see  that  these  ideals  are  put  into 
practice.  They  have  a  very  high  idea  of  Americanism,  and 
they  scrutinize  very  critically  the  conduct  of  the  Americans 
with  whom  they  come  into  contact,  to  see  whether  it  squares 
with  these  ideals.  They  watch  the  manner  in  which  the  laws 
are  enforced  by  the  officials,  and  compare  it  with  the  way  in 
which  they  are  enforced  in  their  native  land ;  and,  if  they  find 
out  that  the  Americans  do  not  practice  what  they  preach, 
that  the  administration  of  public  affairs  is  not  essentially  dif- 
ferent here  from  what  they  know  it  to  be  at  home,  their 
opinion  of  America  is  not  exalted.  They  look  upon  all  the 
loud  protestations  as  bluff  and  hypocrisy,  and  no  amount  of 
Americanization  work  will  change  their  views.  They  are  on 
trial  here,  but  they  also  put  the  Americans  to  a  test. 

This  Americanization  work  must  be  looked  upon  as  the 
molding  of  human  souls.  When  men's  habits  of  thought  and 
action  have  become  fixed  by  age,  when  they  have  lost  their 
youthful  plasticity,  to  recast  their  souls  into  predetermined 
molds  without  subjecting  them  first  to  the  gentle  heat  of  sym- 
pathy is  like  forging  cold  steel  into  new  shapes.  It  can  be 
done,  but  it  requires  enormous  energy  and  the  results  are 
never  as  satisfactory  as  when  the  steel  is  first  heated  into  a 
flux  and  then  cast. 

If  Americanization  is  to  accomplish  its  purpose, — the  amal- 
gamation of  all  the  races  and  nationalities  that  inhabit  the 
United  States  into  one  nation,  the  transformation  of  the 
aliens  into  one  hundred  per  cent.  Americans, — if  it  is  to  be 
beneficial  and  not  harmful,  it  must  be  looked  upon  as  a  spir- 
itual regeneration.  Naturalization  makes  a  citizen  out  of  an 
alien ;  learning  the  English  language  makes  him  more  efficient 
both  for  good  and  evil;  conformity  to  American  habits  and 
customs  wipes  out  social  differences;  knowledge'of  American 
institutions  and  laws  enables  him  to  live  up  to  them  or  to 
break  them  consciously;  but  none  of  these  nor  all  combined 
will  make  him  an  enthusiastic  American  unless  his  heart  has 
been  alienated  from  his  mother  country  and  his  affections 
transferred  to  his  adopted  home.     Not  until  the  alien  will 


OF  AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  135 

love  America  above  all,  not  until  he  will  boast  of  it  and 
defend  its  faults,  can  he  be  considered  a  true  American.  And 
he  will  do  neither  unless  he  has  placed  America  above  his 
mother  country  in  his  estimation.  This  means  a  re-birth  in 
his  soul. 


136  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN    THE   WRITINGS 


ENRICO   C.   SARTORIO 

"The  Social  and  Religious  Life  of  Italians  in  America,"  by  Enrico 
C.  Sartorio,  is  written  from  the  viewpoint  of  one  who  came  as  a 
foreigner  to  America  when  he  was  already  a  )roung  man.  It  aims 
to  show  how  a  foreigner  really  feels.  In  the  words  of  Dean  George 
Hodges,  who  writes  the  Introduction  to  the  book,  it  "is  a  timely 
revelation  of  the  width  and  depth  of  a  racial  gulf  which  must  first 
be  bridged  and  then  filled.  His  suggestions  as  to  the  accomplishing 
of  this  necessary  work  are  definite  and  practical  inferences  from  his 
own  successful  experience." 

Mr.  Sartorio  studied  at  the  Cambridge  Episcopal  Theological 
School  and  has  since  been  successfully  engaged  in  pastoral  work  in 
the  city  of  Boston. 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  1 37 


PATRONIZING    THE    FOREIGNER 

Among  certain  people  there  still  exists  the  old  prejudice 
that  there  must  be  something  the  matter  with  a  foreigner. 
Exclusiveness  on  one  side,  loneliness  on  the  other,  do  not  help 
to  interpret  American  life  in  the  right  spirit  to  the  foreigner. 
If  educated  Italians  thus  do  not  know  the  real  America,  you 
can  easily  imagine  what  the  immigrant's  conception  of 
America  may  be.  My  barber,  who  has  been  in  this  country 
twenty-eight  years,  was  dumbfounded  when  I  told  him  the 
other  day  that  six  people  out  of  seven  in  America  are  Protes- 
tant. The  poor  fellow  had  gone  about  for  twenty-eight  years 
tipping  his  hat  to  every  church,  thinking  that  they  were  all 
Roman  Catholic  churches.  I  have  found  over  and  over  again 
Italian  couples  living  together  in  the  belief  that  they  were 
husband  and  wife,  because  they  misunderstood  American  law. 
They  had  been  told  that  in  America  a  civil  marriage  was  as 
valid  as  a  religious  one,  so  they  went  to  the  City  Hall,  and  by 
going  through  the  process  of  answering  questions  in  taking  out 
the  marriage  license,  they  thought  they  had  been  married  and 
went  happily  home  to  live  together  as  husband  and  wife.  An 
Italian  tried  to  explain  to  me  the  meaning  of  Thanksgiving 
Day.  "You  see,"  he  said,  "the  word  explains  itself,  'Tacchins- 
giving  Day'  " ;  "tacchin"  meaning  turkey  in  Italian,  it  was, 
according  to  this  man,  the  day  on  which  Americans  gave  away 
turkeys. 

And  what  opportunity  has  an  immigrant  to  know  this 
country  when  he  sees  America  only  at  its  worst?  Through 
the  gum-chewing  girls  whom  he  meets  in  factories,  through 
the  hard-drinking  and  hard-swearing  "boss"  who  orders  him 
about,  through  the  dubious  type  of  youth  whom  he  meets 
at  the  saloon  and  in  the  dance  hall,  through  the  descriptions 
given  in  Italian  newspapers  and  by  cheap  orators  he  comes 
to  know  America.  Add  to  that  poor  wages,  quarters  in  the 
slums,  policemen,  car  conductors  and  ushers  who  laugh  at 
him  when  he  asks  for  information,  "bosses"  who  claim  a  fee 


138  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN   THE   WRITINGS 

for  securing  him  a  job,  and  the  sweet  names  of  "Dago"  and 
"Guinea"  by  which  the  supposed  American  thinks  himself  en- 
titled to  call  him,  and  you  can  imagine  what  a  delightful 
feeling  the  average  Italian  has  toward  this  country. 

Where  does  the  fault  lie?  In  prejudice  and  indifference, 
and  in  the  spirit  of  patronage.  Americans  who  judge  by  ap- 
pearances, who  have  not  travelled  in  Italy  or  studied  modern 
Italian  life,  scornfully  turn  away  from  the  Italian  immigrant 
because  he  is  not  as  clean-shaven  or  as  well-kempt  as  the 
American  workingman.  Other  Americans  do  not  concern 
themselves  with  foreigners.  They  have  a  vague  knowledge 
that  there  is  somewhere,  in  some  God-forsaken  corner  of  the 
city,  a  foreign  population,  and  that  is  all.  Still  others  take  a 
sentimental  view  of  the  matter ;  they  have  somewhat  the  feel- 
ing that  existed  in  the  bosom  of  an  Irishwoman,  a  neighbor 
of  mine.  On  Saturday  night, — she  was  always  affectionate 
on  that  special  night, — she  would  wipe  her  eyes  and  say, 
"Thim  poor  Eyetalians."  This  kind  of  person  means  well, 
but  generally  has  zeal  without  knowledge. 

A  lady  of  refinement,  born  in  a  leading  city  of  Italy,  mar- 
ried to  an  Italian  Protestant  minister  who  is  now  at  the  head 
of  an  important  religious  movement  in  Italy,  one  day  received 
the  following  letter: — 

"Dear  Madam : 

"We  are  going  to  have  a  bazaar  for  the  benefit  of  Italians. 
Please  come  to  help  us,  dressed  in  the  national  costume  that 
you  used  to  wear  in  Italy." 

A  son  of  a  leading  lawyer  of  Naples  came  to  this  country 
and  was  soon  holding  a  fine  position  and  making  a  good  living. 
He  met  at  church  an  American  lady,  who  told  him  that  she 
would  be  very  glad  to  see  him  the  next  day  at  her  house.  At 
the  appointed  hour  our  young  gentleman  went  there  and 
handed  his  card  to  the  servant.  "Oh,  yes,"  she  said,  "the 
lady  gave  me  something  for  you,"  and  she  thrust  into  his 
hand  a  dilapidated  suitcase  and  a  note.    The  note  read : — 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  1 39 

"Dear  Sir: 

"I  have  been  called  away  suddenly,  but  my  maid  will  give 
you  the  article  which  I  intended  to  present  to  you  in  asking 
you  to  call.  As  I  no  longer  have  use  for  this  suitcase,  per- 
haps it  would  serve  you  on  your  next  trip  to  Italy. 

"Trusting  to  see  you  at  church  next  Sunday, 
"Sincerely  yours, 


On  another  occasion  an  Italian  minister  was  sent  to  a  new 
field.  A  few  days  after  he  had  settled  down  he  had  a  tele- 
phone call  from  the  wife  of  a  minister  of  the  town,  who 
invited  him  to  call  at  her  house.  At  the  appointed  hour  he 
went  and  was  met  by  the  servant,  who  gave  him  a  newspaper 
bundle.  The  young  man  protested,  saying  that  he  had  come 
to  call  in  response  to  an  invitation.  The  servant  went  up- 
stairs, but  came  back,  saying  there  was  no  mistake,  that  the 
lady  wished  that  given  to  him.  On  reaching  home  he  found 
that  the  contents  consisted  of  cast-off  clothing  for  his  children. 
He  bought  a  handsome  edition  of  an  Italian  book  for  children, 
translated  into  English,  and  sent  it  with  his  regards  to  the 
patronizing  lady. 


140  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT    IN   THE    WRITINGS 


TRAINING  FOR  CITIZENSHIP 

There  should  be,  in  the  large  foreign  colonies,  organized 
lectures,  clubs,  stereopticon  lectures,  distribution  of  informa- 
tion, both  in  Italian  and  in  English,  to  explain  and  to  instruct 
in  regard  to  American  history,  laws,  institutions,  and  ideals. 
There  should  be  free  courses  on  a  university  extension  plan 
for  Italian  professional  men,  with  a  view  to  preparing  them 
to  expound  to  their  people  in  the  right  way  the  principles 
and  standards  of  American  life.  A  regular  and  carefully 
carried  out  campaign  should  be  started  in  the  Italian  news- 
papers, with  well-written  articles  by  leading  men  on  the 
subject  of  American  life;  and  a  careful  censorship  of  Italian 
newspapers  should  be  established  to  challenge  every  article 
that  is  unduly  depreciatory  of  America. 

Churches  should  be  centres  where  American  volunteers  of 
the  best  kind  can  in  deed  and  word  represent  their  country 
to  the  foreigner.  Churches  furnish  a  good  means  to  bring 
about  Americanization.  Italians  are  apt  to  move  from  place 
to  place,  and  those  who  become  attached  to  Evangelical 
churches,  besides  the  good  which  they  eventually  get  in  their 
own  churches,  are  also  brought  into  contact  with  American 
congregations,  who  by  their  example  initiate  them  into  the 
ways  of  American  life. 

A  campaign  to  enlighten  the  immigrant  as  to  his  duties 
towards  his  new  country  should  be  started  on  a  somewhat 
different  basis  from  those  already  tried.  The  immigrant  is 
often  made  to  feel  how  great  the  material  advantage  is  for 
him  in  becoming  an  American  citizen,  and  thus  is  trained 
to  enter  into  American  public  and  political  life  in  a  mercenary 
spirit.  When  I  applied  for  citizenship  papers,  I  received  this 
letter  from  the  Bureau  of  Naturalization,  Washington, 
D.C.:— 

"Dear  Sir: 

"You  have  just  filed  your  petition  for  naturalization 
to   become    a   citizen    of   the    United    States,    and    because 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  I4I 

of  this  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Naturalization  is  sending 
this  letter  to  you,  as  it  desires  to  show  you  how  you  can  be- 
come an  American  citizen.  It  also  wants  to  help  you  to  get 
a  better  position  that  pays  you  more  money  for  your  work. 
In  order  to  help  you  better  yourself  it  has  sent  your  name  to 
the  public  schools  in  your  city,  and  the  superintendent  of 
those  schools  has  promised  to  teach  you  the  things  which  you 
should  know  to  help  you  to  get  a  better  position.  If  you  will 
go  to  the  public  school  building  nearest  where  you  live  the 
teacher  will  tell  you  what  nights  you  can  go  to  school  and 
the  best  school  for  you  to  go  to.  You  will  not  be  put  in  a 
class  with  boys  and  girls,  but  with  grown  people.  It  will 
not  cost  you  anything  for  the  teaching  which  you  will  receive 
in  the  school,  and  it  will  help  you  get  a  better  job  and  also 
make  you  able  to  pass  the  examination  in  court  when  you 
come  to  get  your  citizen's  papers. 

"You  should  call  at  the  schoolhouse  as  soon  as  you  receive 
this  letter  so  that  you  may  start  to  learn  and  be  able  to  get  a 
better  job  as  soon  as  possible. 

"Very  truly  yours, 

N.  N." 

As  you  see,  four  times  there  occurs  in  this  letter  the  exhor- 
tation to  become  a  citizen  and  to  learn  the  English  language 
in  order  to  get  "a  better  job."  The  letter  contains  not  a 
single  appeal  to  higher  motives  nor  a  reference  to  the  duties 
and  responsibilities  of  American  citizenship,  yet  it  is  sent  to 
every  foreigner  who  applies  for  citizenship.  I  think  a  letter 
of  this  kind  is  demoralizing.  I  wonder  whether  America  is 
better  off  for  exhorting  foreigners  to  become  citizens  from 
such  motives,  or  whether  it  would  not  be  more  desirable  to 
instruct  immigrants  carefully  on  the  altruistic  side  as  to  the 
duty  of  sharing  the  responsibilities  of  American  life. 

It  may  be  worth  mentioning  that  thirty  years  of  residence 
in  the  city  of  Rome  is  required  of  any  man,  even  of  Italian 
birth,  in  order  to  become  a  Roman  citizen. 

Human  nature,  fortunately,  is  always  longing  for  an  appeal 
to  its  best  side.     I  accompanied  a  friend  when  the  American 


142  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN    THE   WRITINGS 

citizenship  was  granted  to  him.  The  judge,  a  man  with  a 
fine,  clean-cut  face,  turned  toward  the  candidates — there 
were  about  a  hundred  in  the  room — and  told  the  story  of  the 
Pilgrim  Fathers  who,  although  starved  and  in  great  distress, 
refused  the  opportunity  of  going  back  to  England,  where  re- 
ligious and  political  freedom  was  denied  them.  The  words 
were  to  me  an  inspiration,  and  in  glancing  around  I  saw  the 
faces  of  those  present  light  up  and  show  signs  of  emotion. 
Big  Irishmen,  heavy-faced  Slavs,  small,  dried-up  Jews,  dark 
Italians,  small-headed  Greeks,  I  could  see  in  the  eyes  of  them 
all  the  light  of  men  who  were  seeing  a  vision.  The  appeal  to 
the  best  there  is  in  man  should  be  the  leading  thought  in  edu- 
cating immigrants  to  a  desire  for  American  citizenship. 


' 


OF  AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  1 43 


OTTO   HERMANN   KAHN 

Otto  H.  Kahn  was  born  at  Mannheim,  Germany,  February  si, 
1867.  His  father  had  emigrated  to  the  United  States  in  1848,  where 
he  became  a  naturalized  citizen,  returning  to  Germany  ten  years 
later.  The  son  was  educated  in  Germany  and  served  one  year  in 
the  German  army.  He  then  learned  banking,  and  for  five  years  was 
with  the  London  branch  of  the  Deutsche  Bank.  In  1893  he  came  to 
the  United  States,  where  he  became  connected  with  the  banking 
house  of  Speyer  &  Co.,  and  later  with  the  firm  of  Kuhn,  Loeb  &  Co. 

During  the  Great  War  Mr.  Kahn  delivered  several  patriotic 
speeches  which  were  collected  under  the  title,  "Right  Above  Race." 

The  following  excerpt  is  part  of  an  address  given  at  Carnegie 
Institute,  Pittsburgh,  April  24,  1919. 


144  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN    THE   WRITINGS 


CAPITAL   AND   LABOR— A   FAIR    DEAL 

We  have  often  heard  it  said  recently — it  has  become  rather 
the  fashion  to  say  it — that  the  rulership  of  the  world  will 
henceforth  belong  to  labor.  I  yield  to  no  one  in  my  respect 
and  sympathy  for  labor,  or  in  my  cordial  and  sincere  support 
of  its  just  claims.  The  structure  of  our  institutions  cannot 
stand  unless  the  masses  of  workmen,  farmers,  indeed  all  large 
strata  of  society,  feel  that  under  and  by  these  institutions 
they  are  being  given  a  square  deal  within  the  limits,  not  of 
Utopia,  but  of  what  is  sane,  right  and  practicable. 

But  the  rulership  of  the  world  will  and  ought  to  belong 
to  no  one  class.  It  will  and  ought  to  belong  neither  to  labor 
nor  to  capital,  nor  to  any  other  class.  It  will,  of  right  and 
in  fact,  belong  to  those  of  all  classes  who  acquire  title  to  it 
by  talent,  hard  work,  self-discipline,  character  and  service. 

He  is  no  genuine  friend  or  sound  counselor  of  the  people 
nor  a  true  patriot  who  recklessly,  calculatingly  or  ignorantly 
raises  or  encourages  expectations  which  cannot  or  which  ought 
not  to  be  fulfilled. 

We  must  deal  with  all  these  things  with  common  sense, 
mutual  trust,  with  respect  for  all,  and  with  the  aim  of  guid- 
ing our  conduct  by  the  standard  of  liberty,  justice  and  human 
sympathy.  But  we  must  rightly  understand  liberty.  We 
must  resolutely  oppose  those  who  in  their  impatient  grasping 
for  unattainable  perfection  would  make  of  liberty  a  raging 
and  destructive  torrent  instead  of  a  majestic  and  fertilizing 
stream. 

Liberty  is  not  fool-proof.  For  its  beneficent  working  it 
demands  self-restraint,  a  sane  and  clear  recognition  of  the 
reality  of  things,  of  the  practicable  and  attainable,  and  a 
realization  of  the  fact  that  there  are  laws  of  nature  and  of 
economics  which  are  immutable  and  beyond  our  power  to 
change. 

Nothing  in  history  is  more  pathetic  than  the  record  of  the 
instances  when  one  or  the  other  of  the  peoples  of  the  world 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  1 45 

rejoicingly  followed  a  new  lead  which  it  was  promised  and 
fondly  believed  would  bring  it  to  freedom  and  happiness, 
and  then  suddenly  found  itself,  instead,  on  the  old  and  only 
too  well-trodden  lane  which  goes  through  suffering  and  tur- 
moil to  disillusionment  and  reaction. 

I  suppose  most  of  us  when  we  were  twenty  knew  of  a 
short  cut  to  the  millennium,  and  were  impatient,  resentful 
and  rather  contemptuous  of  those  whose  fossilized  prejudices 
or  selfishness,  as  we  regarded  them,  prevented  that  short  cut 
from  becoming  the  high  road  of  humanity. 

Now  that  we  are  older,  though  we  know  that  our  eyes 
will  not  behold  the  millennium,  we  should  still  like  the 
nearest  possible  approach  to  it;  but  we  have  learned  that  no 
short  cut  leads  there,  and  that  anybody  who  claims  to  have 
found  one  is  either  an  impostor  or  self-deceived. 

Among  those  wandering  signposts  to  Utopia  we  find  and 
recognize  certain  recurrent  types : — 

There  are  those  who,  in  the  fervor  of  their  world-improv- 
ing mission,  discover  and  proclaim  certain  cure-alls  for  the 
ills  of  humanity,  which  they  fondly  and  honestly  believe  to 
be  new  and  unfailing  remedies,  but  which,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  are  hoary  with  age,  having  been  tried  on  this  old  globe 
of  ours  at  one  time  or  another,  in  one  of  its  parts  or  another, 
long  ago, — tried  and  found  wanting  and  discarded  after  sad 
disillusionment. 

There  are  the  spokesmen  of  sophomorism  rampant,  strut- 
ting about  in  the  cloak  of  superior  knowledge,  mischievously 
and  noisily,  to  the  disturbance  of  quiet  and  orderly  mental 
processes  and  sane  progress. 

There  are  the  sentimental,  unseasoned,  intolerant  and 
cocksure  "advanced  thinkers,"  claiming  leave  to  set  the  world 
by  the  ears,  and  with  their  strident  and  ceaseless  voices  to 
drown  the  views  of  those  who  are  too  busy  to  indulge  in 
much  talking. 

There  are  the  self-seeking  demagogues  and  various  related 
types,  and  finally  there  are  the  preachers  and  devotees  of 
liberty  run  amuck,  who  in  fanatical  obsession  would  place  a 
visionary  and  narrow  class  interest  and  a  sloppy  international- 


I46  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN    THE   WRITINGS 

ism  above  patriotism,  and  with  whom  class  hatred  and  envy 
have  become  a  ruling  passion.  They  are  perniciously,  cease- 
lessly and  vociferously  active,  though  constituting  but  a  small 
minority  of  the  people,  and  though  every  election  and  other 
test  has  proved,  fortunately,  that  they  are  not  representative 
of  labor,  either  organized  or  unorganized. 

Among  these  agitators  and  disturbers  who  dare  clamor- 
ously to  assail  the  majestic  and  beneficent  structure  of  Ameri- 
can traditions,  doctrines  and  institutions  there  are  some,  far 
too  many,  indeed — I  say  it  with  deep  regret,  being  myself  of 
foreign  birth — who  are  of  foreign  parentage  or  descent.  With 
many  hundreds  of  thousands  they  or  their  parents  came  to 
our  free  shores  from  lands  of  oppression  and  persecution. 
The  great  republic  generously  gave  them  asylum  and  opened 
wide  to  them  the  portals  of  her  freedom  and  her  opportun- 
ities. 

The  great  bulk  of  these  newcomers  have  become  loyal  and 
enthusiastic  Americans.  Most  of  them  have  proved  them- 
selves useful  and  valuable  elements  in  our  many-rooted  popu- 
lation. Some  of  them  have  accomplished  eminent  achieve- 
ments in  science,  industry  and  the  arts.  Certain  of  the  qual- 
ities and  talents  which  they  contribute  to  the  common  stock 
are  of  great  worth  and  promise. 

When  the  great  test  of  the  war  came,  the  overwhelming 
majority  of  them  rang  wholly  and  finely  true.  The  casualty 
lists  are  eloquent  testimony  to  the  patriotic  devotion  of  "the 
children  of  the  crucible,"  doubly  eloquent  because  many  of 
them  fought  against  their  own  kith  and  kin. 

But  some  there  are  who  have  been  blinded  by  the  glare  of 
liberty  as  a  man  is  blinded  who,  after  long  confinement  in 
darkness,  comes  suddenly  into  the  strong  sunlight.  Blinded, 
they  dare  to  aspire  to  force  their  guidance  upon  Americans 
who  for  generations  have  walked  in  the  light  of  liberty. 

They  have  become  drunk  with  the  strong  wine  of  freedom, 
these  men  who  until  they  landed  on  America's  coasts  had 
tasted  little  but  the  bitter  water  of  tyranny.  Drunk,  they 
presume  to  impose  their  reeling  gait  upon  Americans  to  whom 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  1 47 

freedom  has  been  a  pure  and  refreshing  fountain  for  a  century 
and  a  half. 

Brooding  in  the  gloom  of  age-long  oppression,  they  have 
evolved  a  fantastic  and  distorted  image  of  free  government. 
In  fatuous  effrontery  they  seek  to  graft  the  growth  of  their 
stunted  vision  upon  the  splendid  and  ancient  tree  of  Ameri- 
can institutions. 

Admitted  in  generous  trust  to  the  hospitality  of  America, 
they  grossly  violate  not  only  the  dictates  of  common  gratitude, 
but  of  those  elementary  rules  of  respect  and  consideration 
which  immemorial  custom  imposes  upon  the  newcomer  or 
guest.  They  seek,  indeed,  to  uproot  the  foundations  of  the 
very  house  which  gave  them  shelter. 

We  will  not  have  it  so,  we  who  are  Americans  by  birth  or 
by  adoption.  We  reject  these  impudent  pretentions.  By  all 
means,  let  us  move  forward  and  upward,  but  let  us  proceed 
by  the  chart  of  reason,  experience  and  tested  American  prin- 
ciples and  doctrines,  and  let  us  not  entrust  our  ship  to  dema- 
gogues, visionaries  or  shallow  sentimentalists  who  most  as- 
suredly would  steer  it  on  the  rocks. 

When  you  once  leave  the  level  road  of  Americanism  to 
set  foot  upon  the  incline  of  Socialism,  it  is  no  longer  in  your 
power  to  determine  where  you  will  stop.  It  is  an  axiom  only 
too  well  attested  by  the  experience  of  the  past,  that  the  prin- 
cipal elements  of  the  established  order  of  civilization  (of 
which  the  institution  of  private  property  is  one)  are  closely 
interrelated.  If  you  tolerate  grave  infringement  upon  any  of 
these  elements,  all  history  shows  that  you  will  have  laid  open 
to  assault  the  foundations  of  personal  liberty,  of  orderly  pro- 
cesses of  government,  of  justice  and  tolerance,  as  well  as  the 
institution  of  marriage,  the  sanctity  of  the  home,  and  the 
principles  and  practices  of  religion. 

The  strident  voices  of  the  fomenters  of  unrest  do  not  cause 
me  any  serious  apprehension,  but  we  must  not  sit  silently  by, 
we  must  not  look  on  inactively.  Where  there  are  grievances 
to  redress,  where  there  are  wrongs  existing,  we  must  all 
aid  in  trying  to  right  them  to  the  best  of  our  conscience  and 
ability. 


I48  THE   .AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN   THE   WRITINGS 

To  the  extent  that  social  and  economic  institutions,  how- 
ever deep  and  ancient  their  roots,  may  be  found  to  stand  in 
the  way  of  the  highest  achievable  level  of  social  justice  and 
the  widest  attainable  extension  of  opportunity,  welfare  and 
contentment,  they  will  have  to  submit  to  change.  And  the 
less  obstructive  and  stubborn,  the  more  broad-minded,  co-op- 
erative, sympathetic  and  disinterested  those  who  pre-eminently 
prospered  under  the  old  conditions  will  prove  themselves  in 
meeting  the  spirit  of  the  new  day  and  the  reforms  which  it 
may  justly  call  for,  the  better  it  will  be  both  for  them  and 
for  the  community  at  large. 

But  to  the  false  teaching  and  the  various  pernicious 
"isms"  with  which  un-Americans,  fifty  per  cent.  Americans 
or  anti-Americans  are  flooding  the  country,  we  must  give 
battle  through  an  organized,  persistent,  patient,  nationwide 
campaign  of  education,  of  information,  of  sane  and  sound 
doctrine.  The  masses  of  the  American  people  want  what  is 
right  and  fair,  but  they  "want  to  be  shown."  They  will 
not  simply  take  our  word  for  it  that  because  a  thing  is  so  and 
has  always  been  so,  therefore  it  should  remain  so.  They  do 
not  mean  to  stand  still.  They  want  progress.  They  have  no 
use  for  the  standpatter  and  reactionary. 

Even  before  the  war  a  great  stirring  and  ferment  was  go- 
ing on  in  the  land.  The  people  were  groping,  seeking  for  a 
new  and  better  condition  of  things.  The  war  has  intensified 
that  movement.  It  has  torn  great  fissures  in  the  ancient 
structure  of  our  civilization.  To  restore  it  will  require  the 
co-operation  of  all  patriotic  men  of  sane  and  temperate  views, 
whatever  may  be  their  occupation  or  calling  or  political  affili- 
ations. 

It  cannot  be  restored  just  as  it  was  before.  The  building 
must  be  rendered  more  habitable  and  attractive  to  those  whose 
claim  for  adequate  houseroom  cannot  be  left  unheeded,  either 
justly  or  safely.  Some  changes,  essential  changes,  must  be 
made.  I  have  no  fear  of  the  outcome  and  of  the  readjustment 
which  must  come.  I  have  no  fear  of  the  forces  of  freedom 
unless  they  be  ignored,  repressed  or  falsely  or  selfishly  led. 

Changes  the  American  people  will  make  as  their  needs  be- 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  1 49 

come  apparent,  improvements  they  welcome,  the  greatest  at- 
tainable well-being  for  all  those  under  our  national  roof-tree  is 
their  aim.  They  will  strive  to  realize  what  formerly  were 
considered  unattainable  ideals.  But  they  will  do  all  that  in 
the  American  way  of  sane  and  orderly  progress — and  in  no 
other. 

Whatever  betide  in  European  countries,  this  nation  will 
not  be  torn  from  its  ancient  moorings.  Against  foes  within, 
no  less  than  against  enemies  without,  the  American  people  J 
will  ever  know  how  to  preserve  and  protect  the  splendid 
structure  of  light  and  order,  which  is  the  treasured  inheri- 
tance of  all  those  who  rightfully  bear  the  name  Americans, 
whatever  their  race  and  origin. 


!$•  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN    THE    WRITINGS 


MARCUS   ELI    RAVAGE 

The  story  of  the  Rumanian  immigrant,,  Marcus  E.  Ravage,  was 
published  in  1917  under  the  title,  "An  American  in  the  Making." 
The  most  significant  steps  in  his  transformation  from  alien  to 
American  seem  to  have  been  his  experiences  as  a  sweat-shop  worker 
and  as  a  student  at  the  University  of  Missouri.  It  has  sometimes 
been  thought  that  the  immigrant  who  wishes  to  find  the  real  America 
should  go  West.  At  any  rate  Ravage  is  not  the  only  one  who  has 
felt  the  stimulus  of  the  free  and  democratic  spirit  among  the  people 
of  the  Great  Plains.  We  have  heard  much  in  times  past  of  an 
exchange  of  professors  between  the  United  States  and  Europe.  One 
wonders  whether  a  more  liberal  exchange  both  of  professors  and 
students  between  our  larger  and  smaller,  our  Eastern  and  Western 
and  Northern  and  Southern,  and  our  metropolitan  and  our  rural  in- 
stitutions of  higher  learning  might  not  be  beneficial  to  the  intellectual 
life  of  the  colleges  and  universities  and  also,  by  helping  to  eradicate 
provincialism  and  sectionalism,  to  greater  and  more  abiding  national 
unity. 


OF  AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  151 


THE    NEW    IMMIGRATION 

Oh,  if  I  could  show  you  America  as  we  of  the  oppressed 
peoples  see  it !  If  I  could  bring  home  to  you  even  the  smallest 
fraction  of  this  sacrifice  and  this  upheaval,  the  dreaming  and 
the  strife,  the  agony  and  the  heartache,  the  endless  disap- 
pointments, the  yearning  and  the  despair, — all  of  which  must 
be  ours  before  we  can  make  a  home  for  our  battered  spirits 
in  this  land  of  yours.  Perhaps  if  we  be  young  we  dream  of 
riches  and  adventure,  and  if  we  be  grown  men  we  may  merely 
seek  a  haven  for  our  outraged  human  souls  and  a  safe  retreat 
for  our  hungry  wives  and  children.  Yet  however  aggrieved 
we  may  feel  toward  our  native  home,  we  cannot  but  regard 
our  leaving  it  as  a  violent  severing  of  the  ties  of  our  life,  and 
look  beyond  toward  our  new  home  as  a  sort  of  glorified  exile. 
So,  whether  we  be  young  or  old,  something  of  ourselves  we 
always  leave  behind  in  our  hapless,  cherished  birthplaces. 
And  the  heaviest  share  of  our  burden  inevitably  falls  on  the 
loved  ones  that  remain  when  we  are  gone.  We  make  no 
illusions  for  ourselves.  Though  we  may  expect  wealth,  we 
have  no  thought  of  returning.  It  is  farewell  forever.  We 
are  not  setting  out  on  a  trip ;  we  are  emigrating.  Yes,  we  are 
emigrating,  and  there  is  our  experience,  our  ordeal,  in  a  nut- 
shell. It  is  the  one-way  passport  for  us  every  time.  For 
we  have  glimpsed  a  vision  of  America,  and  we  start  out  re- 
solved that,  whatever  the  cost,  we  shall  make  her  our  own. 
In  our  heavy-laden  hearts  we  are  already  Americans.  In  our 
own  dumb  way  we  have  grasped  her  message  to  us. 

Yes,  we  immigrants  have  a  real  claim  on  America.  Every 
one  of  us  who  did  not  grow  faint-hearted  at  the  start  of  the 
battle,  and  has  stuck  it  out,  has  earned  a  share  in  America 
by  the  ancient  right  of  conquest.  We  have  had  to  subdue 
this  new  home  of  ours  to  make  it  habitable,  and  in  conquer- 
ing it  we  have  conquered  ourselves.  We  are  not  what  we 
were  when  you  saw  us  landing  from  the  Ellis  Island  ferry. 
Our  own  kinsfolk  do  not  know  us  when  they  come  over.  We 
sometimes  hardly  know  ourselves. 


/ 


152  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN    THE    WRITINGS- 


WHAT    COLLEGE    LIFE    IN    THE    WEST    DID 
FOR    AN    IMMIGRANT 

ACQUIRING  A  SENSE  OF   HUMOR 

On  the  whole,  then,  it  looked  as  if  I  might  yet  work  out 
my  salvation  if  only  those  barbarians  would  leave  me  to  my- 
self. But  it  was  not  in  them  to  do  that.  They  seemed  deter- 
mined on  disturbing  my  peace  of  mind.  They  were  devoting, 
I  honestly  believe,  all  their  spare  thoughts  and  all  their  in- 
ventive genius  to  thinking  up  ways  of  making  me  uncom- 
fortable. One  young  gentleman,  still  reminiscent  of  my 
ignorance  of  rural  things,  made  up  a  tale  of  how  I  went  to 
get  a  job  on  a  farm,  and  proceeded  to  relate  it  at  the  table. 
"The  farmer  gave  Max  a  pail  and  a  stool  and  sent  him 
out  to  milk  the  cow.  About  an  hour  later,  when  the  old  boy 
failed  to  show  up  with  the  stuff,  Reuben  went  out  to  see  what 
was  the  trouble.  He  found  his  new  assistant  in  a  fierce  pickle. 
His  clothes  were  torn  and  his  hands  and  face  were  bleeding 
horribly.  'What  in  heck  is  the  matter?'  asked  the  farmer. 
'Oh,  curse  the  old  cow!'  said  Max,  'I  can't  make  her  sit  on 
that  stool.'  "  A  burst  of  merriment  greeted  the  climactic 
ending,  although  the  yarn  was  a  trifle  musty;  and  the  most 
painful  part  of  it  was  that  I  must  laugh  at  the  silly  thing  my- 
self. 

It  was  not  at  all  true,  as  one  of  my  numerous  room-mates 
tried  to  intimate,  that  I  shunned  baths.  I  was  merely  con- 
servative in  the  matter.  One  day,  however,  he  had  the  indeli- 
cacy to  ask  me  the  somewhat  personal  question  whether  I 
ever  took  a  bath;  and  I  told  him  rather  sullenly,  that  I  did 
once  in  a  while.  Some  time  later  I  overheard  him  repeat  the 
dialogue  to  the  other  men  in  the  house  and  provoking  shouts 
of  laughter.  It  puzzled  me  to  see  where  the  joke  was,  until, 
I  learned  that  these  fellows  were  taking  a  shower-bath  at  the 
gymnasium  every  day.  It  seemed  to  me  that  that  was  running 
a  good  thing  into  the  ground.     Again,  I  noticed  that  my 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  1 53 

room-mates  were  making  a  great  show  of  their  tooth- 
brushes. They  used  them  after  every  meal  and  before  retir- 
ing— as  the  advertisements  say — and  always  with  an  unneces- 
sary amount  of  splash  and  clatter.  At  home  I  had  been 
taught  to  keep  my  mouth  and  teeth  clean  without  all  this 
fuss.  Nevertheless,  I  thought  that  I  would  get  a  brush  and 
join  in  the  drill.  After  that  the  other  brushes  became  notice- 
ably quiet. 

And  then,  of  course,  there  was  the  institution  of  the  prac- 
tical joke.  On  April  1st  there  was  soap  in  the  pie.  If  you 
got  in  late  to  a  meal,  it  was  wise  to  brush  your  chair  and 
"pick  your  bites,"  if  any  bites  were  left.  If  not,  there  was  no 
telling  what  you  might  swallow  or  sit  on.  More  than  once 
I  tasted  salt  in  my  water  and  pepper  in  my  biscuits.  I  seemed 
to  have  been  marked  from  the  first  as  a  fit  subject  for  these 
pranks. 

On  Hallowe'en  a  squad  of  cadets  commanded  by  a  corporal 
entered  my  room  and  ordered  me  to  get  into  my  uniform, 
shoulder  my  gun,  and  proceed  to  the  gymnasium,  which,  ac- 
cording to  the  order  read,  the  commandant  assigned  me  to 
guard  against  stragglers.  I  guarded  through  a  whole  un- 
eventful night.  Toward  morning  the  captain  of  the  football 
team,  who  had  a  room  in  the  gymnasium,  returned  from  a 
party.  I  ordered  him  to  halt  and  give  the  password.  He 
smiled  and  tried  to  enter.  I  made  a  lunge  for  him,  and 
would  have  run  my  bayonet  through  him  if  he  had  not  begun 
to  laugh.  "Go  on  home,  you  poor  boy,"  he  said.  "They 
pull  that  stunt  off  every  year.  Poor  joke,  I  think."  The 
next  day  my  table-mates  tried  to  jolly  me  about  it.  They 
said  I  would  be  court-martialed  as  a  deserter  from  duty.  I 
got  angry,  and  that  made  them  all  the  more  hilarious.  Then 
a  great,  strapping  fellow  named  Harvey  spoke  up.  "Be  still, 
you  galoots,"  he  said  to  them;  and  then  to  me,  "For  gosh 
sake,  fellow,  be  human !"  I  tried  a  long  time  to  figure  out 
what  he  meant  by  "human,"  and  for  the  rest  of  my  college 
career  I  strove  to  follow  his  advice.  It  was  the  first  real 
hint  I  had  got  on  what  America,  through  her  representa- 


154  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN    THE   WRITINGS 

tives  in  Missouri,  was  expecting  of  me.    Harvey  became  my 
first  American  friend. 


THE   ROMANCE  OF   READJUSTMENT 

So  to  New  York  I  went,  and  lived  through  the  last  and 
the  bitterest  episode  in  the  romance  of  readjustment.  Dur- 
ing that  whole  strenuous  year,  while  I  was  fighting  my  battle 
for  America,  I  had  never  for  a  moment  stopped  to  figure  the 
price  it  was  costing  me.  I  had  not  dreamed  that  my  mere 
going  to  Missouri  had  opened  up  a  gulf  between  me  and  the 
world  I  had  come  from,  and  that  every  step  I  was  taking 
toward  my  ultimate  goal  was  a  stride  away  from  everything 
that  had  once  been  mine,  that  had  once  been  myself.  Now, 
no  sooner  had  I  alighted  from  the  train  than  it  came  upon 
me  with  a  pang  that  that  one  year  out  there  had  loosened 
ties  that  I  had  imagined  were  eternal. 

There  was  Paul  faithfully  at  the  ferry,  and  as  I  came  off 
he  rushed  up  to  me  and  threw  his  arms  around  me  and  kissed 
me  affectionately.  Did  I  kiss  him  back?  I  am  afraid  not. 
He  took  the  grip  out  of  my  hand  and  carried  it  to  the  Brook- 
lyn Bridge.  Then  we  boarded  a  car.  I  asked  him  where  we 
were  going,  and  he  said,  mysteriously,  "To  Harry's."  A 
surprise  was  awaiting  me,  apparently.  As  we  entered  the 
little  alley  of  a  store  in  the  Italian  quarter,  I  looked  about 
me  and  saw  no  one.  But  suddenly  there  was  a  burst  of 
laughter  from  a  dozen  voices,  a  door  or  two  opened  violently, 
and  my  whole  family  was  upon  me, — brothers,  a  new  sister- 
in-law,  cousins  of  various  degrees,  some  old  people,  a  few 
children.  They  rushed  me  into  the  apartment  behind  the 
store,  pelting  me  with  endearments  and  with  questions.  The 
table  was  set  as  for  a  Purim  feast.  There  was  an  odor  of 
pot-roasted  chicken,  and  my  eye  caught  a  glimpse  of  chopped 
eggplant.  As  the  meal  progressed,  my  heart  was  touched  by 
their  loving  thoughtfulness.  Nothing  had  been  omitted, — 
not  even  the  red  wine  and  the  Turkish  peas  and  rice.  Harry 
and  every  one  else  kept  on  urging  me  to  eat.  "It's  a  long  time 
since  you  have  had  a  real  meal,"  said  my  sister-in-law.    How 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  1 55 

true  ft  was !  But  I  felt  constrained,  and  ate  very  little.  Here 
were  the  people  and  the  things  I  had  so  longed  to  be  with; 
but  I  caught  myself  regarding  them  with  the  eyes  of  a  West- 
ern American.  Suddenly — at  one  glance,  as  it  were — I 
grasped  the  answer  to  the  problem  that  had  puzzled  me  so 
long ;  for  here  in  the  persons  of  those  dear  to  me  I  was  seeing 
myself  as  those  others  had  seen  me. 

I  went  about  revisiting  old  scenes,  and  found  that  every- 
thing had  changed  in  my  brief  absence.  My  friends  were 
not  the  same ;  the  East  Side  was  not  the  same.  They  never 
would  be  the  same.  What  had  come  over  them?  My  kins- 
folk and  my  old  companions  looked  me  over  and  declared  that 
it  was  I  who  had  become  transformed.  I  had  become  soberer. 
I  carried  myself  differently.  There  was  an  unfamiliar  reserve, 
something  mingled  of  coldness  and  melancholy,  in  my  eye.  My 
very  speech  had  a  new  intonation.  It  was  more  incisive,  but^' 
less  fluent,  less  cordial,  they  thought.  Perhaps  so.  At  any 
rate,  while  my  people  were  still  dear  to  me,  and  always 
would  be  dear  to  me,  the  atmosphere  about  them  repelled  me. 
If  it  was  I  who  had  changed,  then,  as  I  took  in  the  little 
world  I  had  emerged  from,  I  could  not  help  telling  myself 
that  the  change  was  a  salutary  one. 

While  calling  at  the  old  basement  bookshop  on  East  Broad- 
way I  suddenly  heard  a  horrible  wailing  and  lamenting  on 
the  street.  A  funeral  procession  was  hurrying  by,  followed 
by  several  women  in  an  open  carriage.  Their  hair  was  flying, 
their  faces  were  red  with  weeping,  their  bodies  were  swaying 
grotesquely  to  the  rhythm  of  their  violent  cries.  The  oldest 
in  the  group  continued  mechanically  to  address  the  body  in 
the  hearse:  "Husband  dear,  upon  whom  have  you  left  us? 
Upon  whom,  husband  dear?"  A  young  girl  facing  her  in 
the  vehicle  looked  about  in  a  terrified  manner,  seized  every 
now  and  then  the  hand  of  her  afflicted  mother,  and  tried  to 
quiet  her.  The  frightful  scene,  with  its  tragic  display,  its 
abysmal  ludicrousness,  its  barbarous  noise,  revolted  me.  I 
had  seen  the  like  of  it  before,  but  that  was  in  another  life. 
I  had  once  been  part  of  such  a  performance  myself,  and  the 
grief  of  it  still  lingered  somewhere  in  my  motley  soul.      But 


156  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN    THE    WRITINGS 

now  I  could  only  think  of  the  affecting  simplicity,  the  quiet, 
unobtrusive  solemnity  of  a  burial  I  had  witnessed  the  previous 
spring  in  the  West. 

The  afternoon  following  my  arrival  I  flew  uptown  to  see 
Esther.  She  waved  to  me  and  smiled  as  I  approached — she 
had  been  waiting  on  the  "stoop."  As  she  shook  my  hand  in 
her  somewhat  masculine  fashion,  she  took  me  in  with  a  glance, 
and  the  first  thing  she  said  was:  "What  a  genteel  person 
you  have  become!  You  have  changed  astonishingly."  "Do 
you  think  so?"  I  asked  her.  "I  am  afraid  I  haven't.  At  least 
they  do  not  think  so  in  Missouri."  Then  she  told  me  that  she 
had  got  only  ten  points,  but  that  she  was  expecting  three  more 
in  the  fall.  She  was  almost  resigned  to  wait  another  year  be- 
fore entering  college.  That  would  enable  her  to  make  her  total 
requirements,  save  up  a  little  more  money,  and  get  her 
breath.  "A  woman  is  not  a  man,  you  know,"  she  added. 
"I  am  beginning  to  feel  the  effects  of  it  all.  I  am  really 
exhausted.  Geometry  has  nearly  finished  me.  And  mother 
has  added  her  share.  She  is  no  longer  young,  and  this 
winter  she  was  ill.  I  have  worried  and  I  have  had  to  send 
money.  But  let  us  not  talk  about  my  troubles.  You  are 
full  of  things  to  tell  me,  I  know." 

Yes,  I  had  lots  I  wanted  to  say,  but  I  did  not  know  where 
to  begin ;  and  the  one  thing  that  was  uppermost  in  my  mind  I 
was  afraid  to  utter  lest  she  should  misunderstand  and  feel  in- 
jured and  reproach  me.  I  did  not  want  her  to  reproach  me 
on  first  meeting.  I  wanted  to  give  myself  time  as  well  as 
her.  And  so  we  fell  into  one  of  those  customary  long  silences, 
and  for  a  while  I  felt  at  home  again,  and  reflected  that  per- 
haps I  had  been  hasty  in  letting  the  first  poignant  reactions 
mislead  me.  Toward  evening  Esther  remarked  that  it  was 
fortunate  I  had  got  to  town  the  day  before.  If  I  had  no 
other  plans,  she  would  take  me  to  a  meeting  at  Clinton  Hall 
where  Michailoff  was  to  speak  on  "The  Coming  Storm  in 
America."  It  would  be  exciting,  she  said,  and  enlightening. 
Michailoff  had  just  come  out  of  prison.  He  was  full  of  new 
impressions  of  America  and  "the  system"  generally,  and  one 
could  rely  on  him  to  tear  things  open. 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  1 57 

Of  course  we  went,  and  the  assemblage  was  noisy  and 
quarrelsome  and  intolerant,  and  the  hall  was  stuffy  and 
smelly,  and  the  speaker  was  honest  and  fiery  and  ill-informed. 
He  thundered  passionately,  and  as  if  he  were  detailing  a  per- 
sonal grievance  against  American  individualism  and  the  be- 
nighted Americans  who  allowed  a  medieval  religion  and  an 
oppressive  capitalistic  system  to  mulct  and  exploit  them,  and 
referred  to  a  recent  article  in  the  Zukunft  where  the  writer 
had  weakly  admitted  the  need  of  being  fair  even  to  Chris- 
tianity, and  insisted  that  to  be  fair  to  an  enemy  of  humanity 
was  to  be  a  traitor  to  humanity.  I  listened  to  it  all  with  an 
alien  ear.  Soon  I  caught  myself  defending  the  enemy  out 
there.  What  did  these  folk  know  of  Americans,  anyhow? 
Michailoff  was,  after  all,  to  radicalism  what  Higgins  and 
Moore  were  to  Christianity.  His  idea  of  being  liberal  was  to 
tolerate  anarchism  if  you  were  a  socialist  and  communism  if 
you  were  an  individualist.  And,  as  we  left  the  hall,  I  told 
Esther  what  I  had  hesitated  to  tell  her  earlier  in  the  evening. 

"Save  yourself,  my  dear  friend.  Run  as  fast  as  you  can. 
You  will  find  a  bigger  and  freer  world  than  this.  Promise 
me  that  you  will  follow  me  to  the  West  this  fall.  You  will 
thank  me  for  it.  Those  big,  genuine  people  out  in  Missouri 
are  the  salt  of  the  earth.  Whatever  they  may  think  about  the 
problem  of  universal  brotherhood,  they  have  already  solved  it 
for  their  next-door  neighbors.  There  is  no  need  of  the  social 
revolution  in  Missouri;  they  have  a  generous  slice  of  the 
kingdom  of  heaven." 

Maybe  I  was  exaggerating,  but  that  was  how  I  felt.  From 
this  distance  and  from  these  surroundings  Missouri  and  the 
new  world  she  meant  to  me  was  enchanting  and  heroic.  The 
loneliness  I  had  endured,  the  snubbing,  the  ridicule,  the  inner 
struggles — all  the  dreariness  and  the  sadness  of  my  life  in  ex- 
ile— had  faded  out  of  the  picture,  and  what  remained  was 
only  an  idealized  vision  of  the  clean  manhood,  the  large 
human  dignity,  the  wholesome,  bracing  atmosphere  of  it, 
which  contrasted  so  strikingly  with  the  things  around  me. 

No,  there  was  no  sense  in  deceiving  myself,  the  East  Side     \J 
had  somehow  ceased  to  be  my  world.     I  had  thought  a  few 


I58  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN   THE   WRITINGS 

days  ago  that  I  was  going  home.  I  had  yelled  to  Harvey 
from  the  train,  as  it  was  pulling  out  of  the  station  at  Colum- 
bia, "I  am  going  home,  old  man!"  But  I  had  merely  come 
to  another  strange  land.  In  the  fall  I  would  return  to  that 
other  exile.    I  was,  indeed,  a  man  without  a  country. 

During  that  entire  summer,  while  I  opened  gates  on  an 
Elevated  train  in  Brooklyn,  I  tussled  with  my  problem.  It 
was  quite  apparent  to  me  from  the  first  what  its  solution 
must  be.  I  knew  that  now  there  was  no  going  back  for  me ; 
that  my  only  hope  lay  in  continuing  in  the  direction  I  had 
taken,  however  painful  it  may  be  to  my  loved  ones  and  to 
myself.  But  for  a  long  time  I  could  not  admit  it  to  myself. 
A  host  of  voices  and  sights  and  memories  had  awakened 
within  me  that  clutched  me  to  my  people  and  to  my  past. 

As  long  as  I  remained  in  New  York  I  kept  up  the  tragic 
farce  of  making  Sunday  calls  on  brother  Harry  and  pretend- 
ing that  all  was  as  before,  that  America  and  education  had 
changed  nothing,  that  I  was  still  one  of  them.  I  had  taken  a 
room  in  a  remote  quarter  of  Brooklyn,  where  there  were  few 
immigrants,  under  the  pretense  that  it  was  nearer  to  the 
railway  barns.  But  I  was  deceiving  no  one  but  myself. 
Most  of  my  relatives,  who  had  received  me  so  heartily  when 
I  arrived,  seemed  to  be  avoiding  Harry's  house  on  Sundays, 
and  on  those  rare  occasions  when  I  ran  into  one  of  them  he 
seemed  frigid  and  ill  at  ease.  Once  Paul  said  to  me:  "You 
are  very  funny.  It  looks  as  if  you  were  ashamed  of  the  fam- 
ily. You  aren't  really,  are  you?  You  know  they  said  you 
would  be  when  you  went  away.  There  is  a  lot  of  foolish  talk 
about  it.  Everybody  speaks  of  Harry  and  me  as  the  doctor's 
brothers.    Can't  you  warm  up?" 

I  poured  out  my  heart  in  a  letter  to  Harvey.  If  a  year 
ago  I  had  been  told  that  I  would  be  laying  my  sorrows  and 
my  disappointments  in  my  own  kindred  before  any  one  out 
there,  I  would  have  laughed  at  the  idea.  But  that  barbarian 
in  Missouri  was  the  only  human  being,  strangely  enough,  in 
whom  I  could  now  confide  with  any  hope  of  being  under- 
stood. I  tried  to  convey  to  him  some  idea  of  the  agonizing 
moral  experience  I  was  going  through.     I  told  him  that  I 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREICN    BIRTH  159 

was  aching  to  get  back  to  Columbia  (how  apt  the  name 
was!),  to  take  up  again  where  I  had  left  off  the  process  of 
my  transformation,  and  to  get  through  with  it  as  soon  as 
might  be. 

And  in  the  fall  I  went  back — this  time  a  week  before  col- 
lege opened — and  was  met  by  Harvey  at  the  station,  just  as 
those  rural-looking  boys  had  been  met  by  their  friends  the 
year  before.  When  I  reached  the  campus,  I  was  surprised 
to  see  how  many  people  knew  me.  Scores  of  them  came  up 
and  slapped  me  on  the  back  and  shook  hands  in  their  hearty, 
boisterous  fashion,  and  hoped  that  I  had  had  a  jolly  summer. 
I  was  asked  to  join  boarding-clubs,  to  become  a  member  in 
debating  societies,  to  come  and  see  this  fellow  or  that  in  his 
room.  It  took  me  off  my  feet,  this  sudden  geniality  of  my 
fellows  toward  me.  I  had  not  been  aware  how,  throughout 
the  previous  year,  the  barriers  between  us  had  been  gradually 
and  steadily  breaking  down.  It  came  upon  me  all  at  once.  I 
felt  my  heart  going  out  to  my  new  friends.  I  had  become 
one  of  them.  I  was  not  a  man  without  a  country.  I  was 
an  American. 


/ 


/ 


l60  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN    THE   WRITINGS 


ELIZABETH    G.    STERN 

The  pathos  of  the  readjustment  of  the  foreign-born  to  the  new  life 
in  America  has  nowhere  been  more  touchingly  presented  than  in  the 
story,  "My  Mother  and  I,"  by  Mrs.  E.  G.  Stern,  who  was  born  in 
Russian  Poland. 

Anyone  who  has  gone  on  a  long  journey  to  make  his  home  far 
from  friends  and  relatives  knows  something  of  the  pain  of  separating 
from  loved  ones;  but  the  pain  of  such  a  separation  cannot  compare 
with  the  travail  of  taking  a  far  spiritual  journey.  That  one  may 
still  have  deep  reverence  for  the  past,  though  breaking  away  from 
it,  is  the  conviction  of  the  author,  who  says:  "And  I  shall  always 
remember  that,  though  my  life  is  now  part  of  my  land's,  yet,  if  I  am 
truly  part  of  America,  it  was  mother,  she  who  does  not  understand 
America,  who  made  me  so.  I  wonder  if,  as  the  American  mother  I 
strive  to  be,  I  can  find  a  finer  example  than  my  own  mother !" 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  l6l 


THE    PATHOS    OF    READJUSTMENT 

author's  purpose  in  writing 

The  mere  writing  of  this  account  is  a  chain,  slight,  but 
never  to  be  broken ;  one  that  will  always  bind  me  to  that 
from  which  I  had  thought  myself  forever  cut  off.  For  I  am 
writing  not  only  of  myself.  In  myself  I  see  one  hundred 
thousand  young  men  and  women  with  dark  eyes  aflame  with 
enthusiasm,  or  blue  eyes  alight  with  hope.  In  myself,  as  I 
write  this  record,  I  see  the  young  girl  whose  father  plucked 
oranges  in  Italian  gardens,  the  maiden  whose  mother  worked 
on  still  mornings  in  the  wide  fields  of  Poland,  the  young 
man  whose  grandmother  toiled  in  the  peat  bogs  of  Ireland. 
I  am  writing  this  for  myself  and  for  those  who,  like  me,  are 
America's  foster  children,  to  remind  us  of  them,  through 
whose  pioneer  courage  the  bright  gates  of  this  beautiful  land 
of  freedom  were  opened  to  us,  and  upon  whose  tumuli  of 
gray  and  weary  years  of  struggle  we,  their  children,  rose  to 
our  opportunities.  I  am  writing  to  those  sons  and  daughters 
of  immigrant  fathers  and  mothers  who  are  now  in  America, 
and  to  those  who  will  come  after  this  devastating  war  to 
America,  and  to  those  who  will  receive  them. 

marriage  and  after 

My  friends  are  now  my  husband's  friends.  My  home  is 
that  kind  of  a  home  in  which  he  has  always  lived.  With  my 
marriage  I  entered  into  a  new  avenue.  We  have  traveled. 
We  have  worked  at  tasks  we  believed  in  and  loved.  We  have 
our  little  son.  I  have  not  written  much  to  mother  about  my 
life.  My  letters  have  been — just  letters.  Her  own  letters 
have  been  growing  briefer  these  last  years.  She  never  came 
to  see  me  in  my  home. 

It  was  our  little  son  who  was  the  real  cause  of  her  com- 
ing finally.  I  thought  of  his  birth  as  the  tearing  down  of 
that  barrier  that  had  come  between  us.     Mother  was  intoxi- 


1 62  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN   THE   WRITINGS 

cated  with  the  delight  of  her  first  grandchild,  the  first  child 
of  her  first  child.  "Now  we  understand  each  other  better, 
now  that  we  both  are  mothers,  my  daughter,"  she  wrote  to 
me,  not  knowing  how  much  more  than  she  meant  to  say  her 
letters  told.  I,  too,  felt  that  in  my  own  motherhood  I  saw 
the  explanation  now  for  mother's  unquestioning,  unceasing 
striving  and  toiling  and  hoping  and  planning  and  achieving 
for  her  children.  "Now  I  can  find  the  joy  of  all  mothers 
again.  I  can  find  my  lost  young  motherhood  in  your  child," 
she  wrote.    "I  am  coming  to  my  grandson." 

Mother  had  not  traveled  since  she  took  that  long  trip, 
twenty-five  years  ago,  from  Poland  to  America,  to  come  to 
her  husband.  And  now  she  was  preparing  to  come  from 
Soho — to  us,  to  her  first  grandchild.  We  were  excited  as 
the  letters  from  home  told  us  that  they  were.  Day  after 
day,  my  sisters  wrote  to  us,  women  came  to  mother,  giving 
her  messages  to  take  to  me,  whom  they  had  known  so  well 
as  a  child.  They  brought  mother  cake  and  jellies  and  wines, 
as  if  she  were  about  to  travel  a  year  instead  of  one  night.  My 
aunts  came  to  help  her  sew  her  clothes,  my  uncles  came  to 
pack  her  suitcases.  It  was  as  if  all  Soho  were  coming  here 
to  us  in  the  person  of  mother.  Father  hurried  back  and  forth 
securing  mileages,  a  berth.  He  carefully  explained  to  mother 
what  a  berth  was,  and  warned  her  above  all  not  to  forget  to 
give  the  black  man,  when  he  gave  her  her  hat,  a  quarter.  My 
sisters  wrote  such  dear  letters,  describing  it  all  there  at  home. 

We  could  hardly  wait.  Our  little  boy  asked  every  day  for 
"grammy."  There  came  a  deluge  of  telegrams  to  us,  which 
clearly  told  us  the  haste  and  nervousness  in  the  little  home  in 
Soho,  and  we  knew  that  mother  was  on  her  way  to  us. 

She  came  in  the  morning.  She  did  not  stop  to  kiss  me, 
nor  to  look  about  her,  but  as  soon  as  she  entered  my  home 
she  cried  breathlessly,  "Where  is  my  grandchild?"  And  she 
held  him  to  her,  and  the  tears  filled  her  eyes.  "Such  a  boy! 
But  a  boy !"  she  cried.  We  had  written  to  her  that  our  boy 
was  speaking  now.  She  sat  down  beside  him,  and  she  crooned 
love-words  to  him. 

Son  is  a  friendly  little  lad.    I  felt  that,  if  I  left  them  alone 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  1 63 

together,  he  and  mother  would  grow  close  in  a  day  or  two. 
I  peeped  one  morning  into  the  nursery.  Mother  was  stand- 
ing, looking  dully  at  the  spotless  baby  cot,  the  white  wicker 
chairs,  the  little .  washable  rugs  on  the  floor,  the  gay  pictures 
on  the  white  walls.  Her  worn  plump  hands  were  folded  one 
upon  the  other  in  a  gesture  that  I  know.  Little  son  was  in  a 
corner,  gravely  building  a  tower.  Little  son  has  been  taught 
that  he  must  play  without  demanding  help  or  attention  from 
adults  about  him,  that  "son  must  help  himself."  In  Soho 
little  boys  are  spanked  and  scolded  and  carried  and  physicked 
and  loved  and  fed  all  day  and  all  night. 

Mother  called  to  little  son  a  quaint  love  name,  and  he 
turned  to  her  with  his  bright  smile,  understanding  her  love 
tone.  Then  he  quietly  turned  away  from  her  to  his  toys 
again.  And  mother  stood  there  in  that  strange  white  baby 
world  which  was  her  grandson's.  Perhaps  she  was  think- 
ing of  what  she  had  thought  to  find  him,  like  one  of  the  chil- 
dren of  her  own  young  motherhood,  dear  burdens  that  one 
bore  night  and  day.  She  was  afraid  to  touch  the  crib,  to  soil 
the  spotless  rugs.  Here  was  her  grandchild,  they  were  to- 
gether, it  is  true.  And  her  grandchild  had  no  need  of  her. 
She  felt  alien,  unnecessary. 

I  felt  the  tears  in  my  eyes.  I  ran  in,  called  son  to  come  to 
play  with  grammy  and  mother.  He  came  readily,  laugh- 
ingly, speaking  his  baby  phrases  that  are  so  adorably  like  the 
words  we  adults,  his  parents,  use.  I  had  been  anticipating, 
even  before  she  came,  how  much  mother  and  I  would  enjoy 
his  baby  talk.  But  mother  said  in  a  very  low  voice,  "You 
say  he  speaks,  daughter.  I  do  not  understand  the  words  he 
means  to  say  now.  And — he  will  never  learn — learn  my  lan- 
guage." 

And  mother's  first  tears  fell. 

We  had  planned  for  every  hour  of  her  visit  to  us,  even 
for  the  hours  of  needed  rest  between  whiles.  In  those  rest 
spaces  she  would  come  into  our  living  room.  She  is  not 
accustomed  to  sitting  in  living  rooms.  Her  life  has  been  a 
life  of  toil.  And  our  living  room  is  to  her  as  strange  a  place 
*s  was  to  me  the  first  sitting  room  I  saw  long  ago. 


164  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN   THE   WRITINGS 

She  looked  with  a  little  smile  about  her.  She  glanced  at 
the  bookcase,  filled  with  books  she  cannot  read,  and  about 
things  she  does  not  know.  Finally  her  gaze  rested  upon  a 
certain  place,  and  my  eyes  followed  hers.  There  stood  the 
old  candlesticks  which  she  had  known  in  her  father's  home 
in  Poland,  and  which  had  stood  in  her  own  kitchen  in  Soho. 
And  there,  in  my  living  room  stands  also,  with  its  bronze 
curves  holding  autumn  leaves — the  copper  fish  pot!  "In 
America,"  said  mother  quaintly,  with  a  little  "crooked  smile" 
only  on  her  trembling,  questioning  lips,  "they  have  all  things 
— so  different." 

There  is  no  need  for  mother's  pot  in  my  kitchen;  it  has 
become  an  emblem  of  the  past,  an  ornament  in  my  living 
room.  Mother  cannot  understand  our  manner  of  cooking, 
the  manner  I  learned  away  from  home.  She  cannot  eat  the 
foods  we  have ;  her  plate  at  meals  was  left  almost  untouched. 
She  does  not  understand  my  white  kitchen,  used  only  for 
cooking.  When  she  came  into  my  kitchen,  my  maid  asked 
her  quickly,  eager  to  please  her,  pleasantly  and  respectfully, 
"What  can  I  do  for  you  ?" 

So  mother  went  out  to  the  porch,  and  she  looked  out  upon 
the  tree-shaded  street.  And  an  infinite  loneliness  was  hers,  a 
loneliness  at  thought  of  the  crowded,  homely  ghetto  street, 
where  every  one  goes  about  in  shirt  sleeves,  or  apron  and 
kimono,  where  every  one  knows  his  neighbor,  where  every 
one  speaks  mother's  speech. 

She  cannot  understand  my  friends,  nor  they  her.  I  am 
the  only  thing  here  that  is  part  of  her  life.  I  for  whom  those 
hands  of  hers  are  hard  and  worn,  and  her  eyes  weary  with  the 
stitching  of  thousands  of  seams.  She  helped  me  to  come  into 
this  house,  to  reach  the  quiet  peace  of  this  street.  And  she 
has  come  to  see  this  place  whither  she  toiled  to  have  me 
come ;  and  now  that  she  came  to  see  my  goal  she  was  afraid, 
lonely.    She  did  not  understand. 

There  is  nothing  that  we  have  in  common,  it  may  appear, 
this  mother  of  mine,  and  I,  the  mother  of  my  son.  Her  life 
has  lain  always  within  the  four  dim  walls  of  her  ghetto  home. 
And  I  have  books,  clubs,  social  service,  music,  plays.     My 


OF  AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  1 65 

motherhood  is  a  privilege  and  an  experience  which  is  mean- 
ingful not  only  to  my  son  and  to  me,  but  to  my  community. 
In  this  short  visit  of  hers,  for  the  first  time  mother  saw  me  as 
that  which  I  had  always  wished  to  be,  an  American  woman 
at  the  head  of  an  American  home.  But  our  home  is  a  home 
which,  try  as  I  may,  we  cannot  make  home  to  mother.  She 
has  seen  come  to  realization  those  things  which  she  helped  me 
to  attain,  and  she  cannot  share,  nor  even  understand,  them. 

But  there  is  one  thing  we  have  in  common,  mother  and  I. 
We  have  this  woman  that  I  am,  this  woman  mother  has 
helped  me  to  become.  And  I  shall  always  remember  that, 
though  my  life  is  now  part  of  my  land's,  yet,  if  I  am  truly 
part  of  America,  it  was  mother,  she  who  does  not  under- 
stand America,  who  made  me  so.  I  wonder  if,  as  the  Ameri- 
can mother  I  strive  to  be,  I  can  find  a  finer  example  than  my 
own  mother ! 

There  are  many  men  and  women  who  have  gone,  as  I 
have,  far  from  that  place  where  we  started.  When  I  think 
of  them  lecturing  on  the  platform,  teaching  in  schools  and 
colleges,  prescribing  in  offices,  pleading  before  the  bar  of  law, 
I  shall  never  be  able  to  see  them  standing  alone.  I  shall 
always  see,  behind  them,  two  shadowy  figures  who  will  stand 
with  questioning,  puzzled  eyes,  eyes  in  which  there  will  be 
love,  but  no  understanding,  and  always  an  infinite  loneliness. 

For  those  men  and  women  who  are  physicians  and  lawyers 
and  teachers  and  writers,  they  are  young,  and  they  belong  to 
America.  And  they  who  recede  into  the  shadow,  they  are 
old,  and  they  do  not  understand  America.  But  they  have 
made  their  contribution  to  America — their  sons  and  their 
daughters. 


l66  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN    THE    WRITINGS 


ROBERT   M.   WERNAER 

Robert  Maximilian  Wernaer  was  born  in  1865  in  Jena,  Germany, 
where  he  received  his  early  education.  After  coming  to  the  United 
States  in  1884,  he  took  a  course  in  law  at  the  Albany  Law  School, 
and  attended  Harvard  University,  from  which  he  received  his  Ph.D. 
degree  in  1903.  His  studies  were  continued  abroad  at  Leipzig, 
Heidelberg,  Geneva,  and  Berlin.  He  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  in 
1889  and  practiced  law  in  Brooklyn  and  New  York.  Later  he  was 
instructor  in  German  at  the  universities  of  Wisconsin  and  Harvard, 
being  also  lecturer  on  German  literature  at  the  latter  institution  in 
1908. 

In  1917  there  was  published  his  stirring,  patriotic  poem,  "The 
Soul  of  America,"  which  leaves  no  doubt  concerning  his  stand  on 
the  great  question  of  the  hour.  The  parts  reprinted  here  are  taken 
chiefly  from  the  opening  cantos  of  the  poem. 


OF  AMERICANS   OF   FOREIGN    BIRTH  167 

THE   SOUL   OF   AMERICA* 

0  America  I    Land  of  forests  and  prairies, 
Land  of  races  and  peoples, 

Land  of  freedom  and  tolerance, 

Looked-for  haven  of  the  nations  of  the  world! 

To  you  I  came,  and  you  I  adopted. 

1  have  infolded  you  as  a  child  infolds  its  mother. 
I  say  to  you:  "My  mother!" 

I  love  you  because  you  hold  the  torch  of  liberty  in  your  outstretched 

hand. 
I  love  you  because  your  constitution  speaks  of  the  people  as  the  rvleie. 
(I  am  a  man — I  salute  you,  brother!) 
I  love  you  because  you  are  not  governed  by  a  king. 
I  love  you  because  princes  and  nobles  are  not  met  on  your  streets — 
The  dignity  of  man  is  not  lowered. 
I  love  you  because  of  the  true  red  mixture  of  human  blood  that  flows 

in  your  veins. 
Blessed  are  the  dreams  of  the  first  settlers! 
I  love  you  because,  in  the  beginning  of  your  history, 
You  gathered  together  your  people ; 
You  girded  your  loins; 
You  armed  yourself  with  weapons  of  steel; 
And  you  fought. 
You  fought  for  liberty; 
You  fought  for  independence; 

0  divine  freemanship! 
You  fought  for  democracy; 

You  fought  for  nature's  own  laws; 

And  you  won. 

Blessed  are  the  noble  men  in  whom  the  dreams  of  our  fathers  still 

live! 
And  since  those  days,  the  peoples  came  from  the  ends  of  the  earth, 
And  you  increased ; 
And  your  stars  now  count  forty  and  eight. 

1  love  you  because  of  what  you  did  in  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth 

century, — 
You  liberated  some  millions  of  dark-colored  people  living  among 

you; 
You  emancipated  them. 

I  love  you  because  you  gave  your  blood  for  the  Cubans. 
You  fought  for  them,  but  took  no  soil. 
You  made  them  free. 
The  Filipinos  will  be  free  also. 

•Copyright,   1917,  by  The  Four  Seas   Company.     By  permission   «f 
thfl  publishers. 


l68  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN    THE   WRITINGS 

I  love  [you]  because  you  are  a  nation  of  givers. 
Above  all  else,  I  love  you  because  of  your  Soul, 
The  infinite  vistas  opening  out  from  your  Soul. 
Blessed  be  that  Soul ! 

And  since  I  love  you, 

Since  my  life  is  entwined  with  your  life, 

My  ideals  with  your  ideals, — 

Gray  matter  and  red  blood  have  sealed  the  pledge, — 

I  wish  you  to  guard  the  beacon  fires  lit  on  your  mountains, 

I  wish  you  to  grow, 

And  increase  in  the  strength  of  body, 

In  the  strength  of  Soul, 

The  things  unseen, 

Your  birthrights,  O  America! 

Ill 

America,  my  country! 

Brothers  all ! 

What  is  that  Liberty  of  which  you  sing? 

Which  impelled  the  first  settlers  to  seek  your  soil  ? 

For  which  they  offered  up  their  blood? 

Which  you  sent  abroad  in  your  calls  of  love? 

Which  brought  the  nations  of  the  earth  to  you  ? 

Singing,  singing  singing! 

Which  you  have  stamped  upon  your  documents  and  silver  coins? 

The  sunlight  spread  out  over  the  States? — 

What  is  that  Liberty? 

You  say  it  is  your  life-principle. 

Yes:  it  is  your  life-principle; 

The  igniting  spark  that  keeps  your  fires,  O  America ! 

That  feeds  your  Soul,  your  Spirit,  your  Being: 

As  your  Liberty  is,  so  is  your  Soul ; 

As  your  Soul  is,  so  is  your  Liberty. 

You  are  not  merely  dwellers  on  this  continent; 

You  are  no  longer  a  province ; 

No  longer  in  the  leading  strings  of  a  parent  land 

Not  now! 

You  are  a  new  land, — 

New,  because  of  a  new  era  started; 

New,  because  you  are  not  a  land  of  just  one  race, 

But  a  company  of  races. 

Held  together  by  a  secret  bond, 

By  a  sacred  bond, 

Sacred  as  a  consecrated  altar, 

The  link  between  you  and  your  destiny, — 


OF  AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  1 69 

Your  very  Soul,  your  Spirit,  your  Being. 

Are  you  conscious  of  that? 

Do  you  feel  it  as  you  feel  the  pulsing  of  your  heart? 

Do  you  feel  it  strike  the  tablet  of  your  mind  as  a  conviction  ? 

Do  you  feel  it  quiver  through  your  body  when  the  word  "American" 

is  uttered? 
What  then  is  Liberty? 
What  does  the  uplifted  torch  mean? 
The  wreath  about  her  brow? 
What  is  this  Soul  I  am  speaking  about? 

Brother,  ask  yourself  that  question. 

Ask  yourself  at  night  in  the  hour  of  rest. 

And  in  the  morning  when  a  new  day  dawns. 

Ask  yourself  now ! 

For  it  is  the  time  of  a  new  consecration. 

To-day!     To-day! 

Ask  yourself  a  thousand  times, 

For  America's  To-morrow  depends  upon  your  answer! 

Yea,  the  world's  To-morrow  depends  upon  your  answer! 

IV 

I  know  a  man  who  years  ago 

Departed  from  his  native  land, 

With  treasures,  wife  and  child; 

And  settled  in  the  kingdom  of  the  sea. 

Rich  he  was,  and,  in  due  time,  the  king  made  him  a  lord. 

He  was  born  in  America,  and  had  breathed  her 

Principle  of  life,  yet  never  known  her  Soul ; 

Was  born  in  America,  yet  had  not  been  American. 

I  know  a  woman  of  leisure  who  lived  in  Paris; 

Ten  happy,  fleeting  years  she  had  spent  there ; 

Then  she  returned  to  the  land  of  her  birth — 

For  a  visit. 

She  made  the  visit  shorter  than  she  had  intended; 

She  thought  of  the  arts  she  had  left  behind; 

She  thought  of  the  boulevards  and  lighted  cafes; 

She  thought  of  the  Countess  de  C.  and  her  cercle  of  friends; 

Our  streets  and  cities  she  no  longer  liked; 

Our  people  seemed  bourgeois  to  her ; 

Our  life  was  too  busy,  and  fulsome  of  noise; 

She  longed  for  leisure  and  fashion ; 

She  scorned  our  ways. 

She,  too,  had  not  known  the  Soul  of  our  land, 

Though  born  under  the  Stars  and  Stripes. 

My  brothers,  there  are  many  of  these. 


I70  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN    THE    WRITINGS 

VII 

My  brother,  what  is  Liberty? 
What   is  Democracy? 
I  feel  a  quiver  run 
Through  our  nation — 
What  is  it  we  have  left  undone 
In  faith  and  consecration  ? 

Our  faith  of  old — 

Has  it  grown  cold  ? 

Is  it  the  search  for  gold 

That  made  us  turn  from  pledges  of  the  past, 

Forgetful  of  the  things  that  last? 

To  play? 

To  chase  the  shadows  in  the  sun? 

To  count  the  trifles  won? 

My  brother, 

What  is  it  we  have  left  undone? 

What  is  it  we  must  do? 

How  can  we  see  things  through, 

In  this  New  Age? 

There  is  the  flesh  of  body,  in  which  the  life  of  man  is  rooted ; 
There  is  the  light  of  the  soul,  which  makes  that  life  a  child  of  God. 
There  is  the  flesh  of  body,  in  which  the  life  of  a  people  is  rooted ; 
There  is  the  light  of  her  soul,  which  makes  that  life  a  nation. 

What  is  our  nation's  Soul  ? 

America's  Light  ? 

Her  entity  as  a  nation  among  nations? 

Her  Being,  I  mean,  her  Heart,  the  glow 

Of  her  Spirit  whereby  she  grows; 

Her  mind  whereby  she  knows 

Herself ;  her  Entity 

Among  the  nations,  free 

Or  bound  ; — this  Soul,  do  you  know  ? 

My  brother,  I  tell  you  no  new  truth, 

Though  a  deep  and  wondrous  truth. 

You  may  have  forgotten — forgotten  it! 

You,  who  have  been  here  too  long — 

My  brother,  know  it  again,  again ! 

Or  you,  newcomer,  no  one  may  have  told  you — 

Hear  me,  then ! 

It  is  a  faith, — 

A  faith  on  which  hangs  all  the  law  and  the  singer's  prophecy; 

Which  cuts  down  to  the  life-roots  of  our  Being; 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  171 

Which  lays  bare  the  red-flowing  blood, — the  sap  of  life; 

And  the  white-shining  Light, — the  blossoms  of  life; 

Which  makes  us  stand  before  our  grave,  and  face  to  face  with  God. 

Blessed  are  the  men  of  the  past  who  saw  the  Light,  who  had  the 

faith! 
It  is  a  faith, — 

The  faith  that  through  our  democracy, 
A  government  and  a  people  sprung  from  American  soil, 
Many  peoples,  peoples  sprung  from  the  races  of  the  world — 
Through  this  democracy — 
The  high-held  promises  that  sleep  in  man, 
Infinite  stretches  of  powers  potential, 
Social,  intellectual,  moral, 
In  embryo  traced  in  lines  of  beauty, 
Can  into  vital  life  be  quickened, 
Strike  deep  their  roots, 
Fed  in  this  wondrous  soil, 
And  gather  mighty  powers  of  growth, 
Unfolding  wing  on  wing  of  nascent  life, 
Nearing  the  stature  of  ideal  selfhood 
God  has  destined  they  should  be, 
Through  this  democracy, 
Through  a  democracy  of  many  peoples, 
The  great  American  Experiment, 
The  new  hope-anointed  start, 
A  nation  in  which  the  people  are  the  rulers, 
A  free  people  of  peoples  free, 
Living  in  concord  one  with  another, 
Striving  steadfast  for  a  high  humanity, 
Reaching  out  to  the  ends  of  the  world, 
Making  an  end  of  Race  for  the  sake  of  Man, 
A  humanity,  great  because  it  is  a  race  of  races, 
Great  because  pledged  to  advance  the  statehood  of  man, 
Crowned  with  the  crown  of  freedom, 
Won  with  eyes  and  ears,  and  swords  and  plows, 
And  creative  brother-will, 

And  love  for  noble  deeds,  and  noble  song,  and  noble  art, 
Calling  all  men  "brothers," — 
That  is  America's  Soul ! 
Her  Soul  in  the  making. 


172  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT    IN    THE   WRITINGS 

WE   MUST   BE   TRUE 

We  must  be  true,  with  faith  renew 

Our  solemn  vows,  forever  true! 

True  as  the  very  prairie  gras9, 

The  woods  and  fields  and  soil  and  mass 

Of  rock,  which  sun  and  air  have  wrought, — 

Growing  without  a  thought, 

Truly  American! 

True  to  historic  days,  the  flow 

And  national  ebb  of  times  ago! 

True  to  the  very  drops  of  life, 

The  battles  fought,  the  stress  and  strife 

Of  anguished  years  to  make  man  free, — 

Loving  our  Liberty, 

Truly  American! 

True  to  the  Lincoln  man,  the  love-chart 

Of  a  great  impassioned  human  heart! 

True  to  the  very  cry  of  our  Soul 

For  better  days,  the  far-out  goal 

Of  struggling  man, — knowing  no  race, 

Lighted  by  a  brother's  face. 

Truly  American! 

We  must  be  true,  with  faith  renew 

Our  solemn  vows,  forever  true! 

True  to  the  very  stars  above, 

To  truth,  to  freedom,  justice,  love 

For  right ;  yea,  unfaltering, — with  the  brave, 

Ready  for  a  freeman's  grave, 

Truly  American! 


OF   AMERICANS   OF   FOREIGN    BIRTH  1 73 


ANGELO   PATRI 

The  country  which  gave  Dante  and  Garibaldi  and  Mazzini  and 
Madame  Montessori  to  the  world  saw  the  birth,  in  1877,  of  Angelo 
Patri,  teacher  in  the  public  schools  of  New  York  City  and  author 
of  "A  Schoolmaster  of  the  Great  City."  This  book  recounts  his 
endeavors  to  realize  his  educational  ideals.  That  he  has  been  trium- 
phantly successful  does  not  seem  to  be  entirely  to  the  credit  of  con- 
temporary pedagogical  methods,  and  his  arraignment  of  much 
current  educational  theory  and  practice  is  as  severe  as  his  passionate, 
Christ-like  love  of  childhood  is  touching  and  beautiful.  The  World 
War  has  convinced  educators  rather  generally  of  the  need  of  vitaliz- 
ing the  work  of  the  schools  through  contact  with  life  itself,  and  for 
this  none  pleads  more  eloquently  than  he. 

The  following  selections  under  altered  titles  are  taken  from  chap- 
ters one,  seven  and  eight. 


\ 


174  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN    THE   WRITINGS 


AN    IMMIGRANT    AND    HIS    FATHER 

I  remember  sitting  with  the  family  and  the  neighbors' 
families  about  the  fireplace,  while  father,  night  after  night, 
told  us  stories  of  the  Knights  of  the  Crusades  or  recounted 
the  glories  of  the  heroes  of  proud  Italy. 

How  he  could  tell  a  story!  His  voice  was  strong  and  soft 
and  soothing,  and  he  had  just  sufficient  power  of  exaggera- 
tion to  increase  the  attractiveness  of  the  tale.  We  could  see 
the  soldiers  he  told  us  about  pass  before  us  in  all  their  strug- 
gles and  sorrows  and  triumphs.  Back  and  forth  he  marched 
them  into  Asia  Minor,  across  Sicily,  and  into  the  castles  of 
France,  Germany  and  England.  We  listened  eagerly  and 
came  back  each  night  ready  to  be  thrilled  and  inspired  again 
by  the  spirit  of  the  good  and  the  great. 

Then  came  the  journey  over  the  sea,  and  the  family  with 
the  neighbors'  families  were  part  of  the  life  of  New  York. 
We  were  Little  Italy. 

I  was  eleven  before  I  went  to  a  city  school.  All  the  Eng- 
lish I  knew  had  been  learned  in  the  street.  I  knew  Italian. 
From  the  time  I  was  seven  I  had  written  letters  for  the  neigh- 
bors. Especially  the  women  folk  took  me  off  to  a  corner  and 
asked  me  to  write  letters  to  their  friends  in  Italy.  As  they 
told  me  the  story,  I  wrote  it  down.  I  thus  learned  the  beat 
of  plain  folks'  hearts. 

My  uncle  from  whom  I  had  learned  Italian  went  back  to 
Italy,  and  I  was  left  without  a  teacher ;  so  one  day  I  attached 
myself  to  a  playmate  and  went  to  school, — an  "American" 
school.  I  gave  my  name  and  my  age,  and  was  told  to  sit  in 
a  long  row  of  benches  with  some  sixty  other  children.  The 
teacher  stood  at  the  blackboard  and  wrote  "March  5,  1887." 
We  all  read  it  after  her,  chanting  the  singsong  with  the 
teacher.  Each  morning  we  did  the  same  thing;  that  is,  re- 
peated lessons  after  the  teacher.  That  first  day  and  the  sec- 
ond day  were  alike,  and  so  were  the  years  that  followed.  "If 
one  yard  of  goods  cost  three  cents,  how  much  will  twenty- 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  1 75 

five  yards  cost?"  If  one  yard  costs  three  cents,  then  twenty- 
five  yards  will  cost  twenty-five  times  three  cents,  or  seventy- 
five  cents.  The  explanation  could  not  vary,  or  it  might  not 
be  true  or  logical. 

But  there  was  one  thing  that  was  impressed  more  strongly 
than  this  routine.  I  had  always  been  a  sickly,  thin,  pale- 
faced  child.  I  did  not  like  to  sit  still.  I  wanted  to  play,  to 
talk,  to  move  about.  But  if  I  did  any  of  these  things,  I  was 
kept  after  school  as  a  punishment.  This  would  not  do.  I 
had  to  get  out  of  the  room,  and  frequently  I  endured  agonies 
because  the  teacher  would  not  permit  me  to  leave  the  room 
whenever  I  wanted  to.  Many  times  I  went  home  sick  and 
lay  abed. 

Soon  I  discovered  that  the  boys  who  sat  quietly,  looked 
straight  ahead  and  folded  their  arms  behind  their  backs,  and 
even  refused  to  talk  to  their  neighbors,  were  allowed  the 
special  privilege  of  leaving  the  room  for  one  minute,  not 
longer.  So  I  sat  still,  very  still,  for  hours  and  hours,  so  that 
I  might  have  the  one  minute.  Throughout  my  whole  school 
life  this  picture  remains  uppermost.  I  sat  still,  repeated 
words,  and  then  obtained  my  minute  allowance. 

For  ten  years  I  did  this,  and  because  I  learned  words  I 
was  able  to  go  from  the  first  year  of  school  through  the 
last  year  of  college.  My  illness  and  the  school  discipline  had 
helped  after  all.  They  had  made  my  school  life  shorter  by 
several  years  than  it  otherwise  might  have  been. 

The  colony  life  of  the  city's  immigrants  is  an  attempt  to 
continue  the  village  traditions  of  the  mother  country.  In  our 
neighborhood  there  were  hundreds  of  families  that  had  come 
from  the  same  part  of  Italy.  On  summer  nights  they  gath- 
ered in  groups  on  the  sidewalks,  the  stoops,  the  courtyards, 
and  talked  and  sang  and  dreamed.  In  winter  the  men  and 
boys  built  Roman  arches  out  of  the  snow. 

But  gradually  the  families  grew  in  size.  The  neighbor- 
hood became  congested.  A  few  families  moved  away.  Ours 
was  one  of  them.  We  began  to  be  a  part  of  the  new  mass 
instead  of  the  old.  The  city  with  its  tremendous  machinery, 
its  many  demands,  its  constant  calling,  calling,  began  to  take 


\ 


176  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN    THE   WRITINGS 

hold.     What  had  been  intimate,  quaint,  beautiful,  ceased  to 
appeal. 

I  went  to  school,  father  went  to  work,  mother  looked 
after  the  house.  When  evening  came,  instead  of  sitting 
about  the  fire,  talking  and  reliving  the  day,  we  sat,  each  in 
his  own  corner.  -One  nursed  his  tired  bones,  another  pre- 
pared his  lessons  for  the  morrow.  The  demands  of  the 
school  devoured  me;  the  work  world  exhausted  my  father. 
The  long  evenings  of  close  contact  with  my  home  people 
were  becoming  rare.  I  was  slipping  away  from  my  home; 
home  was  slipping  away  from  me. 

Yet  my  father  knew  what  he  was  about.  While  the 
fathers  of  most  of  the  boys  about  me  were  putting  their 
money  into  business  or  into  their  houses,  mine  put  his 
strength,  his  love,  his  money,  his  comforts  into  making  me 
better  than  himself.  The  spirit  of  the  crusaders  should  live 
again  in  his  son.  He  wanted  me  to  become  a  priest:  I 
wanted  to  become  a  doctor. 

During  all  the  years  that  he  worked  for  me,  I  worked 
for  myself.  While  his  hopes  were  centred  in  the  family, 
mine  were  extending  beyond  it.  I  worked  late  into  the 
nights,  living  a  life  of  which  my  father  was  not  a  part.  This 
living  by  myself  tended  to  make  me  forget,  indeed  to  under- 
value, the  worth  of  my  people.  I  was  ashamed  sometimes 
because  my  folk  did  not  look  or  talk  like  Americans. 

When  most  depressed  by  the  feeling  of  living  crudely  and 
poorly,  I  would  go  out  to  see  my  father  at  work.  I  would 
see  him  high  up  on  a  scaffold  a  hundred  feet  in  the  air,  and 
my  head  would  get  dizzy  and  my  heart  would  rise  to  my 
throat.  Then  I  would  think  of  him  once  more  as  the  poet 
story-teller  with  the  strong,  soothing  voice  and  the  far-off 
visioned  eye,  and  would  see  why  on  two-dollar-a-day  wages- 
he  sent  me  to  college. 

Proud  of  his  strength,  I  would  strengthen  my  moral  fibre 
and  respond  to  his  dream.  Yet  not  as  he  dreamed ;  for  when 
he  fell  fifty  feet  down  a  ladder  and  was  ill  for  a  whole  year, 
I  went  to  work  at  teaching. 


OF   AMERICANS   OF    FOREIGN    BIRTH  1 77 


AN    IMMIGRANT   AND   THE   CHILDREN 

The  schools  will  change  for  the  better  when  their  life  is 
made  basically  different  from  what  it  has  been. 

They  are  pointed  in  the  direction  of  the  fundamentals  of 
knowledge,  but  working  with  the  tools  of  the  classicists. 
They  have  developed  and  developed  until  we  find  life  on  one 
side, — that  is,  outside  the  school, — and  learning  on  the  other 
side, — that  is,  inside  the  school.  Now  the  schools  must  be 
pointed  so  that  life  and  the  school  become  one. 

To  begin  with,  better  school  conditions  must  be  provided 
for  the  youngest  children.  The  first  steps  in  child  teaching 
must  be  sound.  The  primary  years  of  school  must  be  worth 
while.  Unless  the  basic  structure  is  real,  soul  satisfying, 
higher  education  will  be  halting  and  futile.  The  child  is  en- 
titled to  a  fine  start  in  his  life's  journey  if  he  is  to  have  a 
fair  chance  of  carrying  his  head  high  and  his  shoulders 
straight. 

He  comes  to  school  a  distinct  personality.  He  is  joyous, 
spontaneous,  natural,  free.  But  from  the  first  day,  instead 
of  watching,  encouraging  that  personality,  the  school  begins 
to  suppress  it  and  keeps  up  the  process  year  in  and  year  out. 
By  and  by  we  begin  to  search  for  the  individuality  that  has 
been  submerged.  We  make  tempting  offers  to  the  student 
in  the  high  school  and  in  the  college — we  give  him  better 
teachers,  better  equipment,  greater  freedom,  more  leisure, 
smaller  classes,  direct  experiences.  We  call  upon  him  to 
stand  out,  to  face  the  problems  of  life  honestly,  squarely, — 
to  be  himself.  How  blind  we  are!  First  we  kill,  and  then 
we  weep  for  that  which  we  have  slain. 

We  do  not  look  upon  the  children  as  an  important  eco- 
nomic factor.  Children  are  a  problem  to  the  parent  and 
teacher,  but  not  to  the  race. 

Do  you  raise  pigs?  The  government  is  almost  tearful  in 
its  solicitude  for  their  health  and  welfare.  The  Agricultural 
Bureau  sends  you  scientific  data  gathered  at  great  pains  and 
expense.     But  do  you  raise  children?    Ah!     They  are  very 


178  THE   AMERICAN   SPIRIT   IN   THE   WRITINGS 

expensive.  And  there  are  so  many  of  them !  One  teacher  to 
fifty  is  the  best  we  can  do  for  you.  Teachers  who  are  spe- 
cialists in  their  profession?  Oh,  now  really!  You  know  we 
could  never  afford  that.  We  must  pay  for  high-priced 
teachers  for  the  high  schools  and  upper  grades,  but  for  the 
little  children — all  you  want  is  a  pleasant  personality  that  is 
able  to  teach  the  rudiments  of  learning.  There's  not  much 
to  do  in  those  grades — just  the  rudiments,  you  know.  There's 
no  disciplining  to  do  there,  the  children  are  so  easily  sup- 
pressed.   It's  only  in  the  upper  grades  we  have  the  trouble ! 

Stupid  and  topsy-turvy! 

We  need  the  scientist,  the  child  specialist,  the  artist,  in 
the  first  year  of  school.  We  need  few  children  to  a  teacher 
and  plenty  of  space  to  move  about  in. 

It's  there  the  teacher  should  eagerly,  anxiously,  reverently, 
watch  for  the  little  spark  of  genius,  of  soul,  of  individuality, 
and  so  breathe  the  breath  of  life  upon  it  that  it  can  never 
again  be  crushed  or  repressed. 

We  must  spend  more  money  on  elementary  education  if 
the  money  we  now  spend  on  higher  education  is  to  bring 
forth  results  that  are  commensurate  with  our  national  needs. 
We  spend  fifty  dollars  a  year  on  the  education  of  a  child  and 
ten  times  that  amount  on  the  education  of  a  young  college 
man.  .  .  . 

Do  we  really  believe  in  children?  Can  we  say  with  the 
Roman  mother,  "These  are  my  jewels"?  How  long  ago  is 
it  that  the  state  legislature  passed  a  bill  enabling  the  canner- 
ies to  employ  children  and  women  twelve  hours  a  day?  Fifty 
children  to  a  teacher,  adulterated  foods,  military  discipline, 
are  not  beliefs  in  children.  Enslaving  mothers  is  not  a  belief 
in  children. 

Our  belief  in  children,  like  our  belief  in  many  other  good 
things,  is  mainly  a  word  belief.  What  we  need  is  a  practical 
belief.  We  are  still  at  the  stage  where  we  separate  work  and 
thought,  action  and  theory,  practice  and  ethics.  If  we  would 
be  saved,  we  must  follow  the  child's  way  of  life.  His  way  is 
the  direct  way.  He  learns  from  contact  with  the  forces 
about  him.    He  feels  them,  he  sees  them,  he  knows  what  they 


OF  AMERICANS  OF   FOREIGN    BIRTH  1 79 

do  to  him.  He  thinks  and  does  and  discovers  all  in  one 
continuous  flow  of  energy. 

The  child  says:  "I  am  of  things  as  they  are.  I  am  the 
fighter  for  the  things  that  ought  to  be.  I  was  the  beginning 
of  human  progress,  and  I  am  the  progress  of  the  world.  I 
drive  the  world  on.  I  invent,  I  achieve,  I  reform.  About 
me  is  always  the  glory  of  mounting.  I  have  no  fear  of  fall- 
ing, of  slipping  down,  down.  I  have  no  fear  of  being  lost. 
I  am  truth.    I  am  reality,  and  always  I  question  chaos." 

When  the  child  begins  to  question  the  wisdom  of  the 
group,  its  religion,  its  literature,  its  dress,  its  tastes,  its 
method  of  government,  its  standard  of  judgment,  that  mo- 
ment the  group  should  begin  to  take  heed.  It  should  take 
the  child's  questioning  seriously.  When  the  group  fails  to 
do  this,  it  gives  up  its  existence,  it  ceases  to  grow  because  it 
looks  back,  it  worships  tradition,  it  makes  history  in  terms  of 
the  past  rather  than  in  terms  of  the  future. 

Belief  in  evolution  is  a  belief  in  the  child. 

What  the  race  needs  is  a  principle  of  growth,  spiritual 
growth,  that  can  never  be  denied.  Such  a  principle  it  will 
find  in  the  child,  because  the  spirit  of  the  child  is  the  one  fac- 
tor of  the  group  existence  that  in  itself  keeps  changing,  grow- 
ing. The  child  is  nature's  newest  experiment  in  her  search 
for  a  better  type,  and  the  race  will  be  strong  as  it  determines 
that  the  experiment  shall  be  successful. 

We  develop  national  characteristics  in  accord  with  our  ad- 
herence to  a  common  ideal.  We  must  therefore  surrender 
ourselves  for  the  common  good,  and  the  common  good  to 
which  we  should  surrender  is  epitomized  in  the  child  idea. 

I  feel  that  the  attitude  towards  the  school  and  the  child  is 
the  ultimate  attitude  by  which  America  is  to  be  judged.  In- 
deed, the  distinctive  contribution  America  is  to  make  to  the 
world's  progress  is  not  political,  economical,  religious,  but 
educational,  the  child  our  national  strength,  the  school  as  the 
medium  through  which  the  adult  is  to  be  remade. 

What  an  ideal  for  the  American  people ! 

When  my  father  came  to  America,  he  thought  of  America 
only  as  a  temporary  home.      He  learned  little  or  no  Eng- 


l80  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT    IN    THE   WRITINGS 

lish.  As  the  years  went  by  he  would  say,  "It  is  enough ;  my 
children  know  English."  Then  more  years  rolled  by.  One 
day  he  came  to  me  and  asked  me  to  help  him  get  his  citizen- 
ship papers.  He  and  I  began  reading  history  together.  Month 
after  month  we  worked,  laboring,  translating,  questioning, 
until  the  very  day  of  his  examination. 

That  day  I  hurried  home  from  college  to  find  a  smiling, 
happy  father.    "Did  you  get  them?"  I  asked. 

"Yes,  and  the  judge  wanted  to  know  how  I  knew  the  an- 
swers so  well,  and  I  told  him  my  son  who  goes  to  college 
taught  me,  and  the  judge  complimented  me." 

I  have  been  a  part  of  many  movements  to  Americanize  the 
foreigner,  but  I  see  that  the  child  is  the  only  one  who  can 
carry  the  message  of  democracy  if  the  message  is  to  be  carried 
at  all.  If  the  child  fails  to  make  the  connection  between  the 
ideals  of  the  school  and  the  fundamental  beliefs  of  the  peo- 
ple, there  is  none  other  to  do  it.  The  children  are  the  chain 
that  must  bind  people  together. 

I  have  told  about  parents  growing  because  they  sought 
growth  for  their  children.  I  saw  them  grow  through  the  in- 
itiative of  the  school.  These  were  tenement  dwellers.  Would 
this  thing  hold  where  the  parents  are  well  to  do,  and  the 
streets  are  clean  and  music  is  of  the  best,  and  home  ideals 
are  of  the  highest  and  the  social  life  of  the  neighborhood  is 
intimate?  Is  it  still  necessary  for  the  school  to  gather  the 
parents  about  itself?  Is  it  still  necessary  for  the  school  to 
go  out  into  the  community  and  get  the  parents  to  consciously 
work  as  a  group  for  the  children's  interest,  to  consciously 
shape  their  philosophy  of  life  in  conformity  with  the  dynamic 
philosophy  that  childhood  represents  ? 

More  necessary!  If  not  to  save  the  children,  it  should  be 
done  to  save  the  parents. 

No  matter  who  the  people  are,  they  need  the  school  as  a 
humanizing  force,  so  that  they  may  feel  the  common  interest, 
revive  their  visions,  see  the  fulfillment  of  their  dreams  in 
terms  of  their  children,  so  that  they  may  be  made  young  once 
more.  Americanize  the  foreigner,  nay,  through  the  child  let 
us  fulfill  our  destiny  and  Americanize  America. 


OF  AMERICANS  OF  FOREIGN   BIRTH  l8l 


ANZIA   YEZIERSKA 

Anzia  Yezierska  was  born  in  a  Polish  province  of  Russia  in  the 
year  1886,  and  migrated,  when  nine  years  old,  to  New  York  City, 
where  she  was  sent  to  work  in  an  East  Side  sweatshop  at  a  dollar 
end  a  half  a  week.  Her  life  in  America  has  been  a  heroic  struggle 
for  self-expression  both  in  a  literary  and  spiritual  sense. 

Since  upon  every  hand  one  hears  the  cry  that  more  should  be 
required  of  the  immigrants  in  the  way  of  preparation  for  citizen- 
ship, in  loyalty  and  in  service,  it  is  very  fitting  that  this  book  of 
selections  should  close  with  that  touching  passage  of  her  story,  "How 
I  Found  America,"  which  sets  forth  the  immigrants'  yearning  for 
fellowship  with  native  Americans  and  their  passionate  desire  to 
serve.  Will  not  here  be  found  the  two  master  keys — fellowship  and 
service — to  the  successful  accomplishment  of  the  work  of  American- 
ization ;  in  fact,  without  which  all  attempts  at  Americanization  will 
prove  futile? 

The  writings  of  the  immigrants  have  hitherto  been  largely  histor- 
ical and  sociological  in  character.  Miss  Yezierska's  work  suggests 
the  unlimited  artistic  possibilities  of  the  newer  elements  in  our  na- 
tional life, — gifts  on  which  we  should  not  lay  violent  hands,  but 
which  we  should  carefully  conserve  as  a  part  of  the  heritage  of 
America  to  the  future.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  one  of  her 
stories  was  selected  by  Edward  J.  O'Brien  as  the  best  piece  of  imagi- 
native writing  in  short  form  produced  during  the  year  1919. 

That  part  of  the  story  that  follows  is  taken  from  the  issue  of  The 
Century  for  November,  1920.  The  same  story  in  longer  and  some- 
what different  form  is  found  in  a  volume  of  her  collected  writings 
recently  published  by  Houghton  Mifflin  under  the  title,  "Hungry 
Hearts." 


l82  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN   THE   WRITINGS 


HOW   I    FOUND   AMERICA 

Times  changed.  The  sweat-shop  conditions  that  I  had 
lived  through  had  become  a  relic  of  the  past.  Wages  had 
doubled,  tripled,  and  went  up  higher  and  higher,  and  the 
working  day  became  shorter  and  shorter.  I  began  to  earn 
enough  to  move  my  family  uptown  into  a  sunny,  airy  flat 
with  electricity  and  telephone  service.  I  even  saved  up 
enough  to  buy  a  phonograph  and  a  piano. 

My  knotted  nerves  relaxed.  At  last  I  had  become  free 
from  the  worry  for  bread  and  rent,  but  I  was  not  happy.  A 
more  restless  discontent  than  ever  before  ate  out  my  heart. 
Freedom  from  stomach  needs  only  intensified  the  needs  of  my 
soul. 

I  ached  and  clamored  for  America.  Higher  wages  and 
shorter  hours  of  work,  mere  physical  comfort,  were  not  yet 
America.  I  had  dreamed  that  America  was  a  place  where 
the  heart  could  grow  big  with  living.  Though  outwardly  I 
had  become  prosperous,  life  still  forced  me  into  an  existence 
of  mere  getting  and  getting. 

Ach!  how  I  longed  for  a  friend,  a  real  American  friend, 
some  one  to  whom  I  could  express  the  thoughts  and  feelings 
that  choked  me!  In  the  Bronx,  the  uptown  ghetto,  I  felt 
myself  farther  away  from  the  spirit  of  America  than  ever 
before.  In  the  East  Side  the  people  had  yet  alive  in  their 
eyes  the  old,  old  dreams  of  America,  the  America  that  would 
release  the  age-old  hunger  to  give;  but  in  the  prosperous 
Bronx  good  eating  and  good  sleeping  replaced  the  spiritual 
need  for  giving.  The  chase  for  dollars  and  diamonds  dead- 
ened the  dreams  that  had  once  brought  them  to  America. 

More  and  more  the  all-consuming  need  for  a  friend  pos- 
sessed me.  In  the  street,  in  the  cars,  in  the  subways,  I  was 
always  seeking,  ceaselessly  seeking  for  eyes,  a  face,  the  flash 
of  a  smile  that  would  be  light  in  my  darkness. 

I  felt  sometimes  that  I  was  only  burning  out  my  heart  for 
a  shadow,  an  echo,  a  wild  dream,  but  I  couldn't  help  it. 


OF  AMERICANS  OF   FOREIGN    BIRTH  1 83 

Nothing  was  real  to  me  but  my  hope  of  finding  a  friend. 
America  was  not  America  to  me  unless  I  could  find  an 
American  that  would  make  America  real. 

The  hunger  of  my  heart  drove  me  to  the  night-school. 
Again  my  dream  flamed.  Again  America  beckoned.  In  the 
school  there  would  be  education,  air,  life  for  my  cramped-in 
spirit.  I  would  learn  to  think,  to  form  the  thoughts  that 
surged  formless  in  me.  I  would  find  the  teacher  that  would 
make  me  articulate. 

I  joined  the  literature  class.  They  were  reading  "The 
De  Coverley  Papers."  Filled  with  insatiate  thirst,  I  drank 
in  every  line  with  the  feeling  that  any  moment  I  would  get 
to  the  fountain-heart  of  revelation.  Night  after  night  I  read 
with  tireless  devotion.  But  of  what?  The  manners  and 
customs  of  the  eighteenth  century,  of  people  two  hundred 
years  dead. 

One  evening,  after  a  month's  attendance,  when  the  class 
had  dwindled  from  fifty  to  four,  and  the  teacher  began 
scolding  us  who  were  present  for  those  who  were  absent,  my 
bitterness  broke. 

"Do  you  know  why  all  the  girls  are  dropping  away  from 
the  class?  It's  because  they  have  too  much  sense  than  to 
waste  themselves  on  'The  De  Coverley  Papers.'  Us  four 
girls  are  four  fools.  We  could  learn  more  in  the  streets.  It's 
dirty  and  wrong,  but  it's  life.  What  are  'The  De  Coverley 
Papers?'    Dry  dust  fit  for  the  ash-can." 

"Perhaps  you  had  better  tell  the  principal  your  ideas  of 
the  standard  classics,"  she  scoffed,  white  with  rage. 

"All  right,"  I  snapped,  and  hurried  down  to  the  princi- 
pal's office. 

I  swung  open  the  door. 

"I  just  want  to  tell  you  why  I'm  leaving.    I — " 

"Won't  you  come  in?"  The  principal  rose  and  placed  a 
chair  for  me  near  her  desk.  "Now  tell  me  all."  She  leaned 
forward  with  an  inviting  interest. 

I  looked  up,  and  met  the  steady  gaze  of  eyes  shining  with 
light.  In  a  moment  all  my  anger  fled.  "The  De  Coverley 
Papers"  were  forgotten.    The  warm  friendliness  of  her  face 


184  THE   AMERICAN    SPIRIT   IN   THE   WRITINGS 

held  me  like  a  familiar  dream.  I  couldn't  speak.  It  was  as 
if  the  sky  suddenly  opened  in  my  heart. 

"Do  go  on,"  she  said,  and  gave  me  a  quick  nod.  "I  want 
to  hear." 

The  repression  of  centuries  rushed  out  of  my  heart.  I 
told  her  everything — of  the  mud  hut  in  Sukovoly  where  I 
was  born,  of  the  Czar's  pogroms,  of  the  constant  fear  of  the 
Cossack,  of  Gedalyah  Mindel's  letter,  of  our  hopes  in  coming 
to  America,  and  my  search  for  an  American  who  would 
make  America  real. 

"I  am  so  glad  you  came  to  me,"  she  said.  And  after  a 
pause,  "You  can  help  me." 

"Help  you  ?"  I  cried.  It  was  the  first  time  that  an  Ameri- 
can suggested  that  I  could  help  her. 

"Yes,  indeed.  I  have  always  wanted  to  know  more  of  that 
mysterious,  vibrant  life — the  immigrant.  You  can  help  me 
know  my  girls.    You  have  so  much  to  give — " 

"Give — that's  what  I  was  hungering  and  thirsting  all 
these  years — to  give  out  what's  in  me.  I  was  dying  in  the 
unused  riches  of  my  soul." 

"I  know;  I  know  just  what  you  mean,"  she  said,  putting 
her  hand  on  mine. 

My  whole  being  seemed  to  change  in  the  warmth  of  her 
comprehension.  "I  have  a  friend,"  it  sang  itself  in  me.  "I 
have  a  friend!" 

"And  you  are  a  born  American?"  I  asked.  There  was 
none  of  that  sure,  all-right  look  of  the  Americans  about  her. 

"Yes,  indeed.  My  mother,  like  so  many  mothers," — and 
her  eyebrows  lifted  humorously  whimsical, — "claims  we're 
descendants  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  and  that  one  of  our  lin- 
eal ancestors  came  over  in  the  Mayflower." 

"For  all  your  mother's  pride  in  the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  you 
yourself  are  as  plain  from  the  heart  as  an  immigrant." 

"Weren't  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  immigrants  two  hundred 
years  ago?" 

She  took  from  her  desk  a  book  and  read  to  me. 

Then  she  opened  her  arms  to  me,  and  breathlessly  I  felt 
myself  drawn  to  her.    Bonds  seemed  to  burst,    A  suffusion 


OF  AMERICANS   OF   FOREIGN    BIRTH  1 85 

of  light  filled  my  being.  Great  choirings  lifted  rne  in  space. 
I  walked  out  unseeingly. 

All  the  way  home  the  words  she  read  flamed  before  me: 
"We  go  forth  all  to  seek  America.  And  in  the  seeking  we 
create  her.  In  the  quality  of  our  search  shall  be  the  nature 
of  the  America  that  we  create." 

So  all  those  lonely  years  of  seeking  and  praying  were  not 
in  vain.  How  glad  I  was  that  I  had  not  stopped  at  the  husk, 
a  good  job,  a  good  living!  Through  my  inarticulate  groping 
and  reaching  out  I  had  found  the  soul,  the  spirit  of  America. 


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